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DAYS    NEAR    PARIS 


DAYS  NEAR  PARIS 


BY 

AUGUSTUS  J.  C.  HARE 

AUTHOR    OF    "walks    IN    LONDON,"    "WALKS   IN   ROME,"   "  WALKS   IN   PARIS, 

"FLORENCE,"    "VENICE,"    "WANDERINGS    IN    SPAIN,"    "  CITIES    OF 

SOUTHERN   ITALY  AND   SICILY,"    ETC.,   ETC. 


GEORGE  ROUTLEDGE  AND  SONS,  Limited 

New  York  :  9  Lafayette  Place 

London,  Glasgow  and  Manchester 


AUGUSTUS  J.  C.  HARE'S  WORKS. 
IN  12mo,  CLOTH  VOLUMES-. 


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,  ,  ,Tobe  had  qf  a]l  ,BQoTssMeYs;  or  will  be  sent,  pre-paid, 
on  receipt  of  pHce  Py'4he  Jj^n^lishers. 

.  .GEORGE  ROUTLEDGE-&  SONS,  Limited. 
it»'»t**^     ••      1...        ' 

\  I  I*  1  ,•*!  '•«•'  g."  tAFXvETTE' Place,  New  York, 


Copyright,  1888,  by  J.  L.  Blamire. 


DC  i(oS 

PREFACE.  '^^^ 


The  following  excursions  are  given  in  the  order  in  which 
they  encircle  Paris,  beginning  with  St.  Cloud.  The  wood- 
cuts are  from  my  own  sketches,  transferred  to  wood  by 

Mr.  T.  SuLMAN. 

Augustus  J.   C.  Hare. 


PUBLISHER'S    NOTE. 

In  this  Edition  the  7iumerous  citations  from  French 
writers  of  history  or  memoirs^  in  illustration  of  the  vari- 
ous historical  edifices  that  still  remain^  have  been  translated 
into  English^  and  contain  most  valuable  information  respect- 
ing the  France  of  pre-revolutionary  times. 


748 


CONTENTS. 


— #♦• 

PAGE 

I.  St.  Cloud  and  Sevres i 

II.  Versailles 15 

III.  St.  Germain 106 

IV.  RuEiL,  Malmaison,  and  Marly  ....  119 
V.  PoissY  and  Mantes,  Argenteuil  ....  144 

VI.     St.  Denis,  Enghien,  and  Montmorency    .        .        161 

VII.     St.    Leu    Taverny,    the    Abbaye    du   Val,    and 

Pontoise 188 

VIII.     Ecouen,  Royaumont,  St.  Leu-d'Esserent,  Creil, 

Nogent-les-Vierges 199 

IX.  Chantilly  and  Senlis 208 

X.  Compiegne  and  Pierrefonds      ....  224 

XI.  Nantouillet,  Dammartin,  and  Ermenonville    .  237 

XII.  Vincennes  and  Brie-Comte-Robert  .         .         .  242 

XIII.  Meaux 254 

XIV.  Fontainebleau 260 

XV.  Corbeil,  Savigny-sur-Orge,  Montlh^ry,  Etampes  282 

XVI.     Sceaux,  Chevreuse,  and  Limours      .         .         .        298 

XVII.     Meudon,  Bellevue,  Port  Royal,  Rambouillet  .    313 

XVIII.     Montfort-l'Amaury  and  Dreux       .        .         .        34^ 

Index 355 


I. 

ST.    CLOUD  AND  SEVRES. 

THERE  are  four  ways  of  reaching  St,  Cloud,  i.  The  plcas- 
antest  is  to  drive  through  the  Bois  de  Boulogne,  which  is 
very  enjoyable,  or  (2)  to  take  the  American  tramway — leaving  the 
Place  de  la  Concorde — which  goes  to  Boulogne  and  the  Pont  de 
St.  Cloud  (fares,  55  c.  and  35  c).  3.  By  the  steamers  (only  in 
summer) — Ics  Iliroidellcs  parisienncs — which  start  ever)'' half-hour 
from  the  Quai  des  Tuileries  opposite  the  Louvre  (fares,  week- 
days, 30  c.  ;  Sundays,  50  c),  and  pass  Sevres  (see  below).  4.  By 
rail  from  the  Gare  St.  Lazare,  which  is  the  more  ordinary  way,  if, 
as  is  often  the  case,  St.  Cloud  be  visited  on  the  way  to  another 
point  of  interest. 


The  railway-line  passes — 

Zk,  Courbevoie,  where  Louis  XV.  built  magnificent 
barracks,  which  still  exist.  Under  the  Empire  they  were 
used  for  the  Imperial  Guard.  The  plain  is  now  full  of 
villas  and  gardens. 

\ok.  Puteaux.,  with  pretty  views  over  the  Seine,  and 
rich  cherry  orchards. 

\2k.  Suresnes  (the  ancient  Surisnae),  where  the  cou- 
ronnement  d^une  rosiere  takes  place  annually  on  the  Sunday 
nearest  to  August  i,  at  the  church  in  the  valley  on  the  left. 
Suresnes  is  at  the  base  of  Mont-  Valerien,  originally  the  site 
of  a  calvary  and  hermitage,  now  of  a  famous  fortress. 
There  is  a  splendid  view  across  the  Bois  de  Boulogne  to 


2  DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 

Paris.       Jean  Jacques  Rousseau   admired   it   with  Bernar- 
din  de  Saint-Pierre. 

"  Paris  ■ 'reared  in  'the  ;cHstance  her  towers,  covered  with 
light,  and  seemed  to  cr6<vnitfte'"\Vidfe  landscape.  This  spectacle 
contraste4  wi^h  ^hefh^av}',  leaden,  cl-cTiids  which  succeeded  each 
other  to  t'fie  we,%t'j  {^-tkI',  a.ppeared«  to",  ftll  tfte  valle}-.  As  we  walked 
in  silence,  contemplating  the  spectacle,  Rousseau  said  to  me,  '  I 
will  come,  this  summer,  and  meditate  here.'" — Bernardi?i  de  St. 
Pierre. 

15/'.  St.  Cloud  (Hotel  de  la  Tete  Noire.,  Place  Royale; 
Hotel  (he  Chateau.,  at  the  entrance  of  the  Avenue  du  Cha- 
teau and  the  j^arc  :  endless  restaurants). 

Very  near  the  station  is  the  Chateau  de  St.  Cloud,  set 
on  fire  by  the  bombs  of  Mont-Valerien,  in  the  night  of  Oc- 
tober 13,  1870,  and  now  the  most  melancholy  of  ruins. 
Sufficient,  however,  remains  to  indicate  the  noble  charac- 
ter of  a  building  partly  due  to  Jules  Hardouin  and  Man- 
sart.  The  chateau  is  more  reddened  than  blackened  by 
the  fire,  and  the  beautiful  reliefs  of  its  gables,  its  statues, 
and  the  wrought-iron  grilles  of  its  balconies  are  still  per- 
fect. Grass,  and  even  trees,  grow  in  its  roofless  halls,  in 
one  of  which  the  marble  pillars  and  sculptured  decorations 
are  seen  through  the  gaps  where  windows  once  were. 
The  view  from  the  terrace  is  most  beautiful. 

The  name  of  St.  Cloud  comes  from  a  royal  saint,  who 
was  buried  in  the  collegiate  church,  pulled  down  by  Marie 
Antoinette  (which  stood  opposite  the  modern  church),  and 
to  whose  shrine  there  is  an  annual  pilgrimage.  Clodomir, 
King  of  Orleans,  son  of  Clovis,  dying  in  524,  had  be- 
queathed his  three  sons  to  the  guardianship  of  his  mother 
Clotilde.  Their  barbarous  uncles,  Childebert  and  Clo- 
taire,  coveting  their  heritage,  sent  their  mother  a  sword 
and  a  pair  of  scissors,  asking  her  whether  she  would  pre- 
fer that  they  should  perish  by  the  one,  or  that  their  royal 


ST.    CLOUD  3 

locks  should  be  shorn  with  the  other,  and  that  they  should 
be  shut  up  in  a  convent.  "  I  would  rather  see  them  dead 
than  sliaven,"  repHed  Clotilde  proudly.  Two  of  the  princes 
were  then  murdered  by  their  uncles,  the  third,  Clodo- 
wald,  was  hidden  by  some  faithful  servants,  but  fright 
made  him  cut  off  his  hair  with  his  own  hands,  and  he  en- 
tered a  monastery  at  a  village  then  called  Nogent,  but 
which  derived  from  him  the  name  St.  Clodowald,  corrupted 
into  St.  Cloud. 

Clodowald  bequeathed  the  lands  of  St.  Cloud  to  the 
bishops  of  Paris,  who  had  a  summer  palace  here,  in  which 
the  body  of  Fran9ois  I.  lay  in  state  after  his  death  at 
Rambouillet.  His  son,  Henri  H.,  built  a  villa  here  in 
the  Italian  style  ;  and  Henri  HI.  came  to  live  here  in  a 
villa  belonging  to  the  Gondi  family,  whilst,  with  the  King 
of  Navarre,  he  was  besieging  Paris  in  1589.  The  city  was 
never  taken,  for  at  St.  Cloud  Henri  was  murdered  by 
Jacques  Clement,  a  monk  of  the  Jacobin  convent  in  Paris, 
who  fancied  that  an  angel  had  urged  him  to  the  deed  in  a 
vision. 

"Jacques  Clement  left  Paris  on  the  31st  of  July,  and  took 
the  road  to  Saint  Cloud.  At  the  outposts  of  the  besiegers,  he  met 
the  Procureur  General  La  Guesle,  who  had  accompanied  the 
army,  and  told  him  that  he  brought  to  the  king  '  letters  and  news 
of  the  servants  he  had  in  Paris.'  La  Guesle  took  him  to  his 
lodgings,  interrogated  him,  and  was  so  satisfied  with  his  replies, 
that  he  went  at  once  to  tell  the  king.  Jacques  announced  that 
the  royalists  in  Paris  were  prepared  to  seize  one  of  the  gates  of 
the  city.  He  supped  gaily  with  La  Guesle's  people,  and  slept  so 
soundly  that  he  was  obliged  to  be  aroused  to  go  to  the  king. 
Henri,  after  having  read  the  passport  and  the  forged  credentials, 
ordered  the  monk  to  approach.  Jacques  declared  that  he  had 
matters  of  importance  to  say  to  the  king  in  secret.  The  captain 
of  the  Guard,  Larchant.  and  even  La  Guesle,  the  introducer  of 
the  monk,  opposed  in  vain  a  private  interview  between  Clement 
and  the  king  ;  but  Henri,  although  he  had  received  many  warn- 


^  DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 

ings  that  his  life  was  in  danger,  ordered  La  Guesle  and  Belle- 
garde,  the  grand  equerry,  who  was  near  him,  to  retire  some  paces, 
and  '  lent  an  ear  '  to  the  Jacobin.  An  instant  afterwards,  the 
'king  uttered  a  great  cry,  '  Ah,  the  wretched  monk,  he  has  killed 
me  !'  Brother  Jacques  had  drawn  a  knife  out  of  his  sleeve,  and 
plunged  it  into  the  lower  part  of  the  abdomen. 

"  Henri  started  up,  plucked  the  dagger  from  the  wound,  from 
which  the  bowels  immediately  protruded,  and  struck  the  assas- 
sin on  the  face.  La  Guesle  rushed  at  the  monk,  and  knocked 
him  down  with  a  sword-cut  ;  the  'guard  in  ordinary,'  the  Forty- 
five,  ran  in  at  the  king's  cries,  and  massacred  the  murderer  on 
the  spot.  They  left  to  the  executioners  only  a  dead  body.  Henri 
expired  on  the  2d  of  August,  1589,  between  two  and  three  in  the 
morning,  at  the  age  of  thirty-eight. 

"  So  were  avenged,  at  once,  Coligni  and  Guise  ;  so  were  ful- 
filled the  vows  of  popular  hatred  ;  God  had  extinguished  the 
race  of  Valois  !  " — H.  Martin,  "  Hist,  de  France. '' 

From  this  time  the  house  of  the  banker  Jerome  Gondi, 
one  of  the  Italian  adventurers  who  had  followed  the  fort- 
unes of  Catherine  de  Medicis,  was  an  habitual  residence 
of  the  Court.  It  became  the  property  of  Hervard,  Con- 
troller of  Finances,  from  whom  Louis  XIV.  bought  it  for 
his  brother  Philippe  d'Orleans,  enlarged  the  palace,  and 
employed  Lenotre  to  lay  out  the  park.  Monsieur  married 
the  beautiful  Henriette  d'Angleterre,  3'oungest  daughter  of 
Charles  I.,  who  died  here  (June  30,  1670)  with  strong 
suspicion  of  poison  ;  St.  Simon  affirms  the  person  em- 
ployed to  have  confessed  to  Louis  XIV.  having  used  it  at 
the  instigation  of  the  Chevalier  de  Lorraine  (a  favorite  of 
Monsieur),  whom  Madame  had  caused  to  be  exiled.  One 
of  the  finest  sermons  of  Bossuet  describes  the  "  nuit  desas- 
treuse,  ou  retentit  comme  un  e'clat  de  tonnerre  cette  eton- 
nante  nouvelle  :  Madame  se  meurt !  Madame  est  morte  ! 
Au  premier  bruit  d'un  mal  si  ctrange.,  on  accourt  a  Saint- 
Cloud  de  loutes  parts,  on  trouve  tout  consterne,  excepte  le 
coeur  de  cette  princesse." 


ST.    CLOUD  5 

In  the  following  year  Monsieur  was  married  again  to 
the  Princess  Palatine,  when  it  was  believed  that  his  late 
wife  appeared  near  a  fountain  in  the  park,  where  a  servant, 
sent  to  fetch  water,  died  of  terror.  The  vision  turned  out 
to  be  a  reality — a  hideous  old  woman,  who  amused  her- 
self in  this  way.  "Les  poltrons,"  she  said,  ''faisaient  tant 
de  grimaces^,  que  j'en  mourrais  de  rire.  Ce  plaisir  noc- 
turne me  payait  de  la  peine  d'avoir  porte  la  hotte  toute  la 
joumee." 

Monsieur  gave  magnificent  fetes  to  the  Court  at  St. 
Cloud,  added  to  the  palace  with  great  splendor,  and 
caused  the  great  cascade,  which  Jerome  Gondi  had  made, 
to  be  enlarged  and  embellished  by  Mansart.  It  was  at 
St.  Cloud  that  Monsieur  died  of  an  attack  of  apoplexy, 
brought  on  by  over-eating,  after  his  return  from  a  visit  to 
the  king  at  Marly. 

"Judge  what  confusion  and  disorder  was  at  Marly  that 
night,  and  what  horror  at  Saint  Cloud,  that  palace  of  delights. 
Every  one  at  Marly  hastened  as  best  they  could  to  St.  Cloud,  the 
soonest  ready  the  first  ;  and  all,  men  and  women,  pressed  and 
crowded  into  the  carriages  without  ceremony  or  order.  Mon- 
seigneur  went  with  Madame  la  Duchesse.  In  the  state  in  which 
he  was,  the  shock  was  so  great,  that  it  was  all  that  one  of  the 
Duchesse's  grooms,  who  happened  to  be  there,  could  do,  to  drag 
and  carry  him  almost  trembling  into  the  carriage.  Monsieur  had 
not  a  moment  of  consciousness  after  the  first  attack  ;  not  even  a 
gleam  for  an  instant,  except  when  Father  de  Trevoux  came  in 
the  morning  to  say  mass,  and  even  this  gleam  did  not  return. 

"  The  most  terrible  spectacles  often  present  moments  of 
ridiculous  contrasts.  Father  de  Trevoux  came  back  and  cried  to 
Monsieur,  'Monsieur,  do  not  you  know  5-our  confessor?  Do 
not  you  know  good  little  Father  de  Trevoux  who  is  talking  to 
you  ?  '  and  this  made  the  less  afflicted  laugh  indecently. 

"The  king  appeared  very  much  distressed;  he  was  natu- 
rally prone  to  weep,  and  he  was  therefore  in  tears.  He  had 
never  occasion  except  to  love  Monsieur  tenderly,  and  although 
they  had  not  been  on  good   terms  for  two  months,  these  sad  mo- 


6  BA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 

mcnts  recalled  all  his  tenderness  ;  perha]>s  he  reproached  himself 
for  having  precipitated  the  death  by  the  scene  of  the  morning  ; 
he  was,  too,  two  years  younger,  and  had  all  his  life  been  in  as 
good  or  better  health  than  he.  The  king  heard  mass  at  Saint 
Cloud,  and,  at  eight  in  the  morning.  Monsieur  being  beyond 
hope,  Mme  de  ^laintenon  and  Mme  the  Duchesse  de  Bourgogne 
persuaded  him  not  to  remain  longer,  and  returned  with  him  in  his 
carriage.  As  he  was  about  to  leave,  and  made  some  kindly  re- 
marks to  M.  de  Chartres,  both  of  them  weeping  much,  the  young 
prince  took  the  opportunity  of  saying,  '  Eh,  Sire,  what  will  be 
my  fate  ? '  embracing  his  knees  ;  '  I  lose  Monsieur,  and  you  do 
not  love  me.'  The  king,  surprised  and  much  touched,  embraced 
him  and  made  all  the  affectionate  remarks  he  could.  On  his  ar- 
rival at  Marly,  he  and  the  Duchesse  de  Bourgogne  went  to  the 
apartments  of  Mme  de  Maintenon.  Three  hours  afterwards,  M. 
. Fagon,  to  whom  the  king  had  given  orders  not  to  quit  Monsieur 
till  he  was  dead  or  better,  which  could  only  happen  by  a  miracle, 
entered,  and  the  king,  as  soon  as  he  saw  him,  said,  '  Well,  M. 
Fagon,  my  brother  is  dead?'  'Yes,  Sire,'  replied  he,  'no  rem- 
edy would  act.'  The  king  wept  profusel3^  He  was  urged  to 
take  some  food  in  the  rooms  of  Mme  de  Maintenon,  but  he  re- 
fused and  wished  to  dine  as  usual  with  the  ladies,  and  tears 
coursed  down  his  cheeks  often  during  the  repast,  which  was 
short.  He  then  shut  himself  up  with  Mme  de  Maintenon  till 
seven  o'clock,  when  he  took  a  turn  in  the  garden.  He  transacted 
business  with  Chamillart,  and  then  with  Pontchartrain  respecting 
the  ceremonies  on  the  death  of  Monsieur,  and  then  gave  his  order 
to  Desgranges,  the  master  of  the  ceremonies.  He  took  supper 
an  hour  earlier  than  usual,  and  soon  after  went  to  bed.  He  had 
received  at  five  o'clock  a  visit  from  the  King  and  Queen  of  Eng- 
land, which  lasted  only  for  a  minute. 

"  On  the  departure  of  the  king,  the  crowd  gradually  dimin- 
ished at  Saint  Cloud,  so  that  ^Monsieur,  in  his  dying  moments, 
was  left  on  a  lounge  in  his  cabinet,  exposed  to  the  scullions  and 
lower  servants,  most  of  whom,  from  interest  or  affection, were  much 
distressed.  The  high  officers  of  the  household,  and  others  who 
lost  their  places  or  pensions,  made  the  air  resound  with  their 
cries,  while  all  the  ladies  who  were  at  Saint  Cloud,  and  lost  all 
their  amusements,  ran  here  and  there,  like  dishevelled  bac- 
chantes. 

"  Madame  was  ia  her  cabinet  meanwhile  ;  she  had  never  had 
any  great  esteem  or  affection  for  Monsieur,  but  felt  her  loss  and 


ST.    CLOUD  7 

her  fall  ;  and  in  the  midst  of  her  grief,  cried  with  all  her  force, 
'  No  convent  !  Do  not  speak  to  me  of  a  convent.  I  will  not 
have  a  convent  ! '  The  good  princess  had  not  lost  her  senses. 
She  knew  that  by  her  marriage  contract,  she  had  to  choose,  on 
becoming  a  widow,  between  a  convent  or  the  chatean  of  ]Mont- 
argis  for  a  residence.  Whether  ^he  thought  she  could  quit  one 
easier  than  the  other,  or  whether  she  felt  how  much  reason 
she  had  to  fear  the  king,  although  she  did  not  yet  know  all,  and 
he  treated  her  with  the  usual  courtesy,  she  had  still  greater  fear 
of  a  convent.  When  Monsieur  was  dead  she  entered  her  carriage 
with  her  ladies,  and  went  to  Versailles,  accompanied  by  M.  and 
Mme  the  Duchess  de  Chartres,  and  the  wdiole  of  their  suites. 

"  After  such  a  terrible  sight,  so  many  tears,  and  such  displays 
of  affection,  every  one  expected  that  the  three  days  that  remained 
of  the  visit  to  Marly  would  be  exceedingly  melancholy.  But  on 
the  very  evening  of  Monsieur's  death,  when  the  ladies  of  the  palace 
entered  the  apartments  of  Mme  de  Maintenon,  where  she  was, 
and  the  king  with  her,  and  the  Duchess  de  Bourgogne,  about 
noon,  they  heard  in  the  adjoining  room  were  they  where,  the 
party  singing  some  operatic  airs.  Shortly  afterwards  the  king, 
seeing  Mme  the  Duchess  de  Bourgogne  very  sad  in  the  cor- 
ner of  the  room,  asked  Mme  de  Maintenon,  with  surprise,  what 
made  her  so  melancholy,  and  began  to  cheer  her  up,  and  then  to 
play  with  her  and  some  of  the  ladies  of  the  palace,  whom  he  sum- 
moned to  amuse  them.  Nor  was  this  the  only  strange  occur- 
rence. After  dinner — that  is,  a  little  after  two  o'clock,  twenty-six 
hours  after  Monsieur's  death — the  Duke  de  Bourgogne  asked  the 
Duke  de  Montfort  if  he  would  like  a  game  of  cards.  '  Cards  ! ' 
cried  Montfort,  in  extreme  astonishment  ;  '  do  not  you  know  that 
Monsieur  is  not  cold  yet  ! '  '  Pardon  me,'  said  the  prince,  '  I 
know  it,  but  the  king  wishes  every  one  at  Marly  to  be  amused, 
and  has  ordered  me  to  set  all  to  cards,  and  for  fear  that  there 
should  be  some  reluctance  in  beginning,  to  give  the  example  my- 
self.' They  formed  a  party,  and  the  salon  was  soon  filled  with 
card-tables." — St.  Simon,  ''  Ulemobrs,"  1701. 

The  chatean  continued  to  be  occupied  b}^  Madame, 
daughter  of  the  Elector,  the  rude,  original,  and  satirical 
Princess  Palatine,  in  whom  the  modern  House  of  Orleans 
has  its  origin/  and  here  she  died  during  the  regency  of 
her  son. 

1  Henri  Martin,  xiii.  355. 


8  DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 

"Madame  was  a  princess  of  the  olden  times,  attached  to 
lionor,  virtue,  rank  and  grandeur,  and  inexorable  as  to  good 
manners.  She  was  not  deficient  in  intelligence,  and  what  she 
saw,  she  saw  clearlv.  A  good  and  faithful  friend,  sure,  true,  up- 
right, easy  to  alarm  and  shock,  very  difficult  to  reconvert,  brusque, 
prone  to  dangerous  sallies  in  public,  very  German  in  all  her  ways, 
frank,  regardless  of  all  delicacy  or  reserve  for  herself  or  for 
(Others,  severe,  stern,  and  taking  fancies.  She  loved  dogs  and 
horses,  hunting  and  public  performances  ;  was  always  in  a  man's 
great-coat  or  wig,  and  a  riding  dress.  For  sixty  )'ears,  'veil  or 
sick,  and  she  was  seldom  that,  she  had  never  used  a  dressing- 
gown." —  St.  Sinioi,  ''  Afe'/noires.'' 

The  Regent  d'Orleans,  nephew  of  Louis  XIV. ^  received 
Peter  the  Great  at  St.  Cloud  in  17 17.  In  1752  his  grand- 
son, Louis  Philppe  d'Oi'leans,  gave  at  St.  Cloud  one  of  the 
most  magnificent  fetes  ever  seen  in  France. 

"  28  Sept.  La  fete  de  Saint-Cloud  a  ete  magnifique  et  popu- 
laire  :  tout  le  peuple  de  Paris  y  a  couru,  de  fagon  qu'il  etait 
entierement  dehors  dimanche,  et  que,  le  lendemain,  c'etait  en- 
core une  procession  de  tout  le  peuple  qui  revenait.  Toutes  les 
vignes  de  la  plaine  vis-a-vis  Saint-Cloud  ont  ete  ravagees,  et  le 
roi  a  remis  a  ces  vignerons  la  taille  pour  trois  ans." — Barbier, 
"'Journal." 

In  1785  the  Due  d'Orleans  sold  St.  Cloud  for  six  mil- 
lion francs  to  Queen  Marie  Antoinette,  who  made  great 
alterations  in  the  internal  arrangements  of  the  building, 
where  she  resided  during:  the  earlv  davs  of  the  Revolution. 

"One  day,  during  a  visit  of  the  court  to  Saint  Cloud,  1  was 
witness  of  a  very  affecting  scene,  which  we  took  care  not  to 
divulge.  It  was  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  the  guard  was  not 
mounted,  there  was  almost  nol)od}-  that  day  at  Saint  Cloud,  and 
I  was  reading  to  the  queen,  who  was  working  at  her  frame,  in 
one  of  the  rooms  that  had  a  balcony  opening  on  the  court.  The 
windows  were  closed,  but  we  heard  a  dull  sound  from  a  number 
of  voices,  that  seemed  to  speak  onlv  in  suppressed  ton^s.  The 
queen  told  me  to  see  what  it  was  ;  I  raised  the  muslin  curtain, 
and  saw,  beneath  the  balcony,  over  fifty  persons.  This  group 
was  composed  of  ladies,  old  and  young,  all  dressed  in  the  costume 


ST.    CLOUD  g 

usual  in  the  country,  some  old  Chevaliers  de  Saint-Louis,  some 
vouns  Knights  of  Malta,  and  a  few  ecclesiastics.  I  told  the 
queen  that  it  was  probably  a  reunion  of  some  societies  from  the 
neighboring  country  districts,  who  wished  to  see  her.  She  rose, 
opened  the  window,  and  appeared  on  the  balcony,  and  then  all 
this  good  people  said  to  her  in  a  low  voice,  '  tiave  courage,  Ma- 
dame, the  French  suffer  for  }ou  and  with  you  ;  they  pray  for 
you,  and  Heaven  will  hear  them  ;  we  love  you,  we  respect  yon, 
and  we  reverence  our  exemplary  king.'  The  queen  burst  into 
tears,  and  raised  her  handkerchief  to  her  eyes.  '  Poor  queen, 
she  weeps  ! '  the  ladies  said,  but  the  fear  of  compromising  her 
Majesty  and  the  persons  who  displayed  such  affection,  inspired 
me  to  take  her  Majesty's  hand  with  an  intimation  that  I  wished 
her  to  return  to  the  room  ;  then,  raising  my  eyes,  I  gave  the 
company  to  understand  that  prudence  dictated  my  action.  They 
judged  so  too,  for  I  heard,  '  She  is  right,  that  lady,'  and  then, 
'  Adieu,  Madame,'  uttered  in  accents  so  full  of  truth  and  sad- 
ness, that,  when  I  recall  them,  after  the  lapse  of  twenty  years,  I 
am  still  moved." — Mine  Campan. 

It  was  at  St.  Cloud  that  the  coup  (fetal  occurred  \ybich 
made  Napoleon  first-consul.  This  led  him  to  choose  the 
palace  of  St.  Cloud,  which  had  been  the  cradle  of  his 
power,  as  his  principal  residence,  and,  under  the  first  em- 
pire, it  was  customary  to  speak  of  "  le  cabinet  de  Saint- 
Cloud,''  as  previously  of  "  le  cabinet  de  Versailles,"  and 
afterwards  of  "  le  cabinet  des  Tuileries."  Here,  in  1805, 
Napoleon  and  Josephine  assisted  at  the  baptism  of  the 
future  Napoleon  III. 

"  Dimanche,  a  trois  heurs  apres-midi,  Leurs  Majestes  Im- 
periales,  suivies  de  la  cour,  se  rendirent  a  Saint-Cloud  pour 
le  bapteme  du  prince  Napoleon-Louis,  fils  de  S.  A.  I.  Mgr. 
Louis.  Cette  ceremonie  a  ete  faite  avec  la  plus  grande  pompe 
par  Sa  Saintete.  L'imperatrice  etait  precedee  par  les  pages,  les 
ecuyers,  et  les  chambellans  de  S.  M.  ;  a  droite  de  l'imperatrice 
etait  sa  dame  d'honneur  et,  un  pen  en  arriere,  son  premier  aumo- 
nier ;  a  sa  gauche,  son  premier  ecuyer,  sa  dame  d'atours  ;  un 
page  portait  la  queue  de  la  robe  de  S.  M."  &c. — Le  Monitet»*%  27 
Mars,  1805. 


lO 


DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 


It  was  also  in  the  palace  of  St.  Cloud  that  Napoleon  I. 
was  married  to  Marie  Louise,  April  i,  1810. 

In  this  palace  of  many  changes  the  allied  sovereigns 
met  after  the  fall  of  the  first  empire.  Blucher,  after  his 
fashion,  slept  booted  and  spurred  in  the  bed  of  Napoleon  ; 
and  the  capitulation  of  Paris  was  signed  here  July  3,  1815. 

Louis  XVIII.  and  Charles  X.  both  lived  much  at  St. 
Cloud,  and  added  to  it  considerably;  but  here,  where 
Henri  IV.  had  been  recognized  as  King  of  France  and 
Navarra,  Charles  X.  was  forced  by  the  will  of  the  people 
to  abdicate,  July  30,  1830.  Two  years  after,  Louis  Phi- 
lippe established  himself  with  his  family  at  St.  Cloud,  and 
his  daughter  Clementine  was  married  to  Duke  Augustus 
of  Saxe-Coburg  in  its  chapel,  April  28,  1843.  Like  his 
uncle,  Napoleon  III.  was  devoted  to  St.  Cloud,  where — 
"  d'un  coeur  leger  " — the  declaration  of  war  with  Prussia 
was  signed  in  the  library,  July  17,  1870,  a  ceremony  fol- 
lowed by  a  banquet,  during  which  the  "  Marseillaise  "  was 
played.  The  doom  of  St.  Cloud  was  then  sealed.  On 
the  13th  of  the  following  October  the  besieged  Parisians 
beheld  the  volumes  of  flame  rising  behind  the  Bois  de 
Boulogne,  which  told  that  St.  Cloud,  recently  occupied  by 
the  Prussians,  and  frequently  bombarded  in  consequence 
from  Mont-Valerien,  had  been  fired  by  French  bombs. 

In  the  Lower  Park  of  St.  Cloud,  an  avenue,  entered 
from  the  Place  Royale,  and  bordered  on  one  side  by 
booths  and  shops,  leads  at  once  to  the  foot  of  the  Grande 
Cascade. 

But  visitors  will  generally  start  on  a  (short)  walk  from 
the  chateau,  at  the  back  of  which  they  will  find  the 
gardens  (Pare  Reserve),  the  Petit  Pare  of  Marie  Antoi- 
nette, now  always  open  to  the  public.  The  walk,  between 
the  flower-beds,  fiicing  the  chateau,  leads  to  the  water  called 


GARDENS  OF  ST.    CLOUD  n 

Piece  de  la  Grande  Gerbe,  whence  in  a  few  minutes  a  cross- 
way  -is  reached,  formed  by  the  Alices  de  Versailles,  de  la 
Felicite,  and  de  la  Lantcnie.  If  we  follow,  to  the  left,  the 
Allee  de  ha  Lanterne,  we  reach  at  once  the  terrace,  where 
the  Belvidere  of  Napoleon  I.  formerly  stood,  known  as  the 
Lanterne  de  Diogene,  and  destroyed  during  the  siege  of 
Paris  in  1870.  The  view  towards  Paris  is  most  interest- 
ing and  beautiful.  There  is  some  idea  of  erecting  a 
Crystal  Palace,  like  that  of  Sydenham,  on  this  site ! 

Following  the  Allee  du  Chateau  as  far  as  a  grassy  am- 
phitheatre, a  path  on  the  right  leads  down  to  the  lower 
walks  at  Le  grand  Jet  d^Eau,  or  Jet  de  la  Grande  Gerbe, 
which  (when  it  plays)  is  42  metres  in  height. 

"  Persuadez  aux  ycux,  que,  d'un  coup  de  baguette, 
Una  f6e,  en  passant,  s'est  fait  cette  retraite. 
Tel  j'ai  vu  de  Saint-Cloud  le  bocage  enchanteur 
L'oeil  de  son  jet  hardi  mesure  la  hauteur  ; 
Aux  eaux  qui  sur  les  eaux  retombent  et  bondissent, 
Les  bassins,  les  bosquets,  les  grottes  applaudissent, 
Le  gazon  est  plus  vert,  I'air  plus  fraix,  des  oiseaux 
Le  chant  s'anime  au  bruit  de  la  chute  des  eaux  ; 
Et  les  bois,  inclinant  leur  tiges  arrosees, 
Semblent  s'epanouir  a  ces  douces  rosees." — Delillc. 

Hence,  a  few  steps  bring  us  to  La  Grande  Cascade,  the 
most  magnificent  of  the  "  grandes-eaux,"  which  plays  from 
4  to  5  P.M.  on  the  second  Sunday  of  every  month  in  sum- 
mer, and  on  the  three  Sundays  of  the  fete  de  St.  Cloud, 
which  lasts  from  three  to  five  weeks  from  the  first  Sunday 
in  September.  The  upper  part  of  the  cascade  is  due 
to  Lepautre,  by  whom  it  was  constructed  for  Monsieur, 
brother  of  Louis  XIV. ;  the  lower  to  Mansart.  The  two 
cascades  are  completely  harmonious,  though  separated  by 
the  walk  called  Alice  de  Tillet,  from  a  house  which  once 
occupied  the  site.     True  Parisians  of  the  middle  classes 


12 


DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 


have  no  greater  pleasure  than  a  day  spent  at  St.  Cloud — 
"pour  voir  jouer  les  eaux. " 

At  the  end  of  one  of  the  principal  avenues,  Allee  de 
Breteuil,  below  the  Allee  du  Chateau,  is  the  Pavilion  de 
Breteuil,  built  by  the  Bailli  de  Breteuil,  Chancellor  of  the 
Duke  of  Orleans. 

Joining  the  park  of  St.  Cloud  is  that  of  Villeneuve 
VEtang^  which  belonged  to  the  Duchesse  d'Angouleme, 


LA  GRANDE  CASCADE.  ST.  CLOUD. 


who  frequently  resided  there  as  Dauphine,  during  the  reign 
of  Charles  X.,  devoting  herself  to  the  education  of  her 
nephew,  afterwards  Comte  de  Chambord.  It  was  here 
that,  a  fortnight  before  the  revolution  of  1830,  which  drove 
her  from  France,  she  received  a  visit — accompanied  by 
vehement  demonstrations  of  lovaltv  and  affection — from 
Louis  Philippe. 

The  favorite  summer  retreat  of  Napoleon  III. — where 
the  garden  still  retains  the  seat  of  the  Empress  Eugdnie, 


SE VRES 


13 


and  the  swing  and  miniature  railway  of  the  Prince  Imperial 
-—is  now  occupied  by  the  dog-kennels  and  experiments  of 
M.  Pasteur. 

Between  St.  Cloud  and  Versailles,  with  a  station  on  the 
railway,  is  Ville  (fAvray  (Restaurant  de  la  Chaumiere), 
with  pools  surrounded  by  wood,  constantly  painted  by 
Corot,  to  whom  a  monument  (by  Dechaune)  has  been 
erected,  near  the  house  which  he  occupied.  Marc  Antoine 
Thierry,  first  valet  de  chambre  of  Louis  XVI.,  built  a 
chateau  here,  below  which  was  a  (still  existing)  fountain, 
whose  pure  waters,  exclusively  reserved  for  the  king's  table, 
were  daily  sent  for  from  Versailles. 


The  steamer  descends  the  Seine,  passing  under  the 
Pont  de  Solferino,  Pont  de  la  Concorde,  Pont  des  Invalides, 
and  Pont  d'Alma.  Then  the  Champ  de  Mars  is  seen  on 
the  left,  the  Palais  du  Trocadero  on  the  right.  After  the 
Pont  d'le'na,  Passy  is  passed  on  the  right,  and  the  He  des 
Cygnes  on  the  left.  Then  comes  the  Pont  de  Grenelle, 
after  which  Auteuil  is  passed  on  the  right  and  Javel  on  the 
left.  After  leaving  the  Pont-viaduc  du  Point-du-Jour,  the 
He  de  Billancourt  is  seen  on  the  left.  After  the  Pont  de 
Billancourt,  the  steamer  passes  between  the  lies  de  Billan- 
court and  Se'guin  to  Bas  Meudon.  Hence,  skirting  the 
heights  of  Bellevue,  it  reaches  its  sixth  station — 

Sevres  (Severa). — Here,  very  near  the  river,  at  the  end 
of  the  bridge,  is  the  famous  Ma?tufacture  de  Porcelame,  open 
daily  to  visitors  from  12  to  4  from  October  i  to  March  31, 
and  from  12  to  5  from  April  i  to  September  30.  The 
workshops  are  only  supposed  to  be  visible  on  Mondays, 
Thursdays  and  Saturdays,  with  an  order  from  the  adminis- 
tration, but  strangers  are  generally  admitted. 


14 


DA  YS  NEAR  PARIS 


A  china  manufactory,  which  had  already  existed  at 
St.  Cloud,  Chantilly,  and  Vincennes,  was  first  established 
here  in  1756,  and  having  been  bought  from  its  owners  in 
1760,  at  the  instigation  of  Mme  de  Pompadour,  by  Louis 
XV.,  became  thenceforth  a  royal  manufacture. 

"The  manufactory  of  Sevres  had  no  competition  to  fear  ;  for 
the  decree  of  the  Council  of  1780  forbade  any  private  enterprise, 
under  pain  of  fine  and  confiscation,  for  the  manufacture  of  '  all 
sorts  of  articles  or  pieces  of  porcelain,  painted  or  unpainted,  gilt 
or  ungilt,  flat  or  in  relief,  in  sculpture,  flowers  and  figures.'" — '■ 
Patil  Lacroix,  Dix-hiiitihne  siecle. 

The  collections  shown  are  divided  into  the  Exposition 
des  produits  de  Sevres  and  the  Musee  Ceramique.  In  the 
ateliers,  visitors  are  shown  the  three  processes  of  le  Toiir- 
nage,  h  Coulage,  and  la  Cuisson  des  pates  et  des  eniaux. 

The  village  of  Sevres  clusters  round  the  church  of  St. 
Romain,  which  dates  from  the  XIII.  c,  but  has  been  much 
altered  at  different  times.  In  the  cemetery  is  the  tomb  of 
Senancour — the  poet  of  the  first  Revolution — with  the 
words  of  his  choice  (from  his  '■  Libres  Meditations "), 
"  Eternite,  deviens  mon  asyle  !  " 

If  the  traveller  enters  the  park  of  St.  Cloud  by  the 
Sevres  gate,  a  few  minutes  bring  him  to  an  avenue  leading 
to  the  extremity  of  a  piece  of  water  which  ends  in  the 
Grande  Cascade. 


II. 

VERSAILLES. 

SUMMER  visitors  to  Versailles  should,  if  possible,  be  there 
on  a  Sunday,  when  the  graiides  eaux  are  playing.  This  fairy 
scene  is  advertised  in  the  newspapers,  at  the  Gare  de  I'Ouest,  and 
on  the  omnibuses  which  serve  the  station. 

Nothing  can  prevent  a  visit  to  Versailles  from  being  exceed- 
ingly fatiguing.  There  is  too  much  to  be  seen  for  one  day. 
Even  superficial  visitors  should  give  one  day  at  least  to  the  inte- 
rior of  the  palace,  and  another  to  the  gardens  and  the  Trianons. 

If  an  attempt  be  made  to  see  the  whole  in  one  day,  a  carriage 
should  certainly  be  taken  from  the  Palace  to  the  Trianons. 

The  palace  is  visible  daily,  except  Mondays,  from  12  to  4. 
Visitors  are  allowed  to  wander  unattended. 

The  park  and  gardens  are  visible  daily  from  6  A.M.  to  8  p.m. 
The  fountains  play  about  4  p.m.  on  the  first  Sunday  of  every 
month  in  summer,  except  the  Bassin  de  Neptune,  which  only  plays 
from  5  to  5.30  p.m. 

The  Grand  Trianon,  Muse'e  des  Voittires,  and  Petit  Tiianon 
are  shown  daily,  except  Monday,  from  12  to  4.  Visitors  are  here 
hurried  round  b)'  a  guide. 

The  palace  chapel  is  shown  on  production  of  a  passport. 

All  the  sights  of  Versailles  are  open  free  to  the  public. 

The  galleries  of  the  palace  are  very  cold  in  winter. 


There  are  three  ways  of  reaching  Versailles,  i.  The  pleas- 
antest,  by  the  tramway  from  the  Quai  du  Louvre  (interior,  i  fr.  ; 
imp^riale,  85  c).  Trams  every  quarter  of  an  hour  from  8  a.m. 
The  road  crosses  the  Seine  at  Sevres,  passes  through  Chaville 
and  Viroflay,  and  ends  at  the  Place  d'Armes  at  Versailles,  on  the 
side  opposite  the  palace,  at  the  angle  of  the  Rue  Hoche. 


l6  DAYS  NEAR   PARIS 

2.  By  rail  from  the  Gave  St.  Lazare  (rive  droite)  in  35  min. 
express  :  50  min.  slow  trains.  The  line  is  the  same  as  that  to  St. 
Cloud.  There  are  omnibuses  (30  c),  and  tramway  (25  c.  and 
15  c),  and  carriages  (i  fr.  25  c.  the  course  :  i  fr.  50  c.  the  hour, 
without  pourboire)  from  the  station  to  the  palace.  On  leaving 
the  station,  pedestrians  must  turn  left  by  the  Rue  Duplessis. 
Reaching  the  market,  turn  right  by  Rue  de  la  Paroisse  to  the 
church  of  Notre  Dame,  built  by  Hardouin-Mansart,  16S4-S6  ; 
then  turn  left,  passing  the  statue  of  Gene/al  Hoche  (born  at  Ver- 
sailles, 1768)  to  the  Place  d'Armes,  where  you  find  the  palace  on 
your  right. 

3.  By  rail  from  Garc  Montparnasse  (very  far  from  the  English 
quarter  of  Paris)  by  Clamart,  Meudon,  and  Belleville,  described 
in  Ch.  xvii.  From  the  station  at  Versailles,  take  the  Avenue 
Thiers,  then  (right)  the  Avenue  de  Sceaux,  which  will  lead  to  the 
Place  d'Armes,  opposite  the  palace. 

Tickets  :  Single — First  class,  i  fr.  65  c.  ;  second  class,  i  fr. 
20  c.  Return — First  class,  3  fr.  30  c.  ;  second  class,  2  fr.  40  c. 
On  Jours  des  grandes  eaux  :  Return — First  class,  3  fr.  30  c.  ;  sec- 
ond class,  2  fr.  40  c.      Return  tickets  are  available  by  either  line. 

Carriages  for  drives  in  the  neighborhood  of  Versailles  cost  2 
fr.  an  hour,  or  2  fr.  50  c.  on  Sundays  and  fete  days. 

Hotels":  des  Reservoirs  (which  faced  the  mansion  of  the  Princes 
de  Conde,  where  La  Bruyere  died)  ;  de  France. 

Restaurant :  du  Miise'e,  Rue  des  Reservoirs,  good  and  rea- 
sonable. 


"  Venez,  suivez  mon  vol  au  pays  des  prestiges, 
A  ce  pompeux  Versailles." — Delille,  '' Jardins.'' 

"  Versailles  .... 

Ou  les  rois  furent  condamnes  a  la  magnificence." 
'  Voltaire,  ' '  Henriade. " 

The  first  palace  of  Versailles  was  a  hunting  lodge  built 
by  Louis  XIII.  at  the  angle  of  the  present  Rue  de  la 
Pompe  and  Avenue  de  St.  Cloud.  This  he  afterwards 
found  too  small,  and  built,  in  1627,  a  moated  castle,  on 
the  site  of  a  windmill  in  which  he  had  once  taken  shelter 
for  the  night.  The  buildings  of  this  chateau  still  exist,  re- 
spected, as  the  home  of  his  father,  in  all  the  alterations  of 


THE    CREATIOiY   OF    ]^ERSAILLES  17 

Louis  XIV.,  and  they  form  the  centre  of  the  present 
jDalace.  In  1632  Louis  XIII.  became  seigneur  of  Ver- 
sailles, by  purchase  from  Francois  de  Gondi,  Archbishop 
of  Paris. 

The  immense  works  which  Louis  XIV.  undertook  here, 
and  which  were  carried  out  by  the  architect  Mansart,  were 
begun  in  1661,  and  in  1682  the  residence  of  the  Court  was 
definitely  fixed  at  Versailles,  connected  by  new  roads  with 
the  capital.  Colbert  made  a  last  effort  to  keep  the  king 
at  Paris,  and  to  divert  the  immense  sums  which  were 
being  swallowed  up  in  Versailles  to  the  completion  of  the 
Louvre. 

'  It  is,  Sire,  a  very  difficult  task  that  I  am  undertaking  ;  for 
nearly  six  months  I  have  been  hesitating  about  saying  to  your 
Majesty  what  I  said  yesterday,  and  what  I  am  going  to  say 
further.  .  .  .  Your  Majesty  knows,  that,  apart  from  brilliant 
actions  in  war,  nothing  marks  so  strongly  the  grandeur  and 
genius  of  princes  as  their  buildings,  and  that  posterity  always 
measures  them  by  the  standard  of  the  superb  edifices  they  erected 
in  their  lives.  What  a  pity,  if  the  greatest  and  most  exemplary 
of  kings  .  .  .  should  be  measured  by  the  standard  of  Versailles  ! 
And  there  is  always  this  danger  to  fea?:  While  your  Majesty  has 
expended  very  large  sums  on  this  house,  the  Louvre  has  been 
neglected,  and  it  is  assuredly  the  most  superb  palace  in  the 
world,  and  the  most  worthy  of  your  grandeur;  and  may  God 
grant  that  so  many  occasions  that  may  necessitate  the  entrance  on 
some  great  wars  may  not  deprive  you  of  the  means  of  completing 
this  superb  building.'  " — Guillatiniot. 

The  very'  dulness  of  the  site  of  Versailles,  leaving 
everything  to  be  created,  was  an  extra  attraction  in  the 
eyes  of  Louis  XIV. 

"Colbert  wished  the  king  to  be  what  Richelieu  had  been, 
France  personified  ;  that  he  should  be  the  thought,  as  Paris  was 
the  head  of  France,  and  that  the  thought,  so  to  say,  should  not 
be  divorced  from  the  brain  where  it  was  developed. 

"  Louis,  on  the  contrary,  tended  insensibly  to  absorb  France 


1 8  DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 

into  his  personality,  to  be  the  State  instead  of  expressing  and 
representing  the  State  ;  to  be  by  himself  and  for  himself  instead 
of  being  by  and  for  France.  Paris  galled  and  burdened  him. 
He  felt  his  greatness  cramped  in  that  queen  city  which  did  not 
owe  its  origin  to  him,  and  enveloped  him  in  its  gigantic  arms  ;  he 
hated  that  power  of  the  people  that  had  humiliated  his  childhood 
and  more  than  once  overcome  his  predecessors.  Jealous  of 
Paris,  he  was  jealous  even  of  the  shadow  of  his  own  ancestors, 
or  at  least  he  did  not  wish  to  be  subject  to  their  memories.  If 
he  preferred  his  palaces  to  Paris,  he  preferred  Versailles  to  his 
other  palaces,  because  Fontainebleau,  Chambord,  Saint-Germain 
had  been  already  created,  and  were  edifices  on  which  Francis  I. 
and  Henri  HI.  had  left  ineffaceable  marks  of  their  glory.  At 
Versailles,  all  was  to  be  still  created,  except  the  modest  starting- 
point  given  by  Louis  XHI.,  the  little  palace  of  his  father,  which 
the  Great  King  would  respect  from  filial  piety  which  cost  his 
pride  nothing.  Louis  XIV.  did  not  fear  the  recollections  of 
Louis  XIII. 

"  At  Versailles,  we  have  said,  all  was  to  be  created,  not  only 
monuments  of  art,  but  nature  herself.  This  lonely  plain,  pleas- 
ing enough  from  the  woods  and  hills  that  surround  it,  had  no 
wide  views,  no  sites,  no  water,  no  inhabitants  ;  it  was  a  favorite 
ivithout  /nL'7'it,  as  a  contemporary^  wittily  remarked.  But  it  was 
a  merit  to  have  no  merit  of  its  own,  and  to  owe  ever^'thing  to  its 
master.  What  Louis  did  in  the  choice  of  his  palace,  one  day, 
we  may  fear,  he  will  do  in  the  choice  of  his  generals  and  ministers  ! 

"There  are  no  sites,  no  water,  and  no  inhabitants  at  Ver- 
sailles ;  the  sites  will  be  created  by  creating  an  immense  land- 
scape of  human  handiwork  ;  the  water  will  be  brought  from  all 
the  region  by  works  that  terrify  the  imagination  ;  the  inhabitants 
will  be  made,  if  we  may  so  say,  to  spring  from  the  earth  by  build- 
ing a  whole  large  city  for  the  attendants  on  the  chateau.  Louis 
will  thus  make  a  city  for  himself,  a  form  for  himself  of  which  he 
alone  is  the  soul.  Versailles  and  the  Court  will  be  the  body  and 
soul  of  one  and  the  same  being,  both  created  for  the  same  end, 
the  glorification  of  the  god  on  earth  to  whom  they  owe  their 
existence." — Martin,    "^  Hist,  de  F7'ance.'' 

The  great  difficulty  to  be  contended  with  in  the  creation 
of  Versailles  was  the  want  of  water,  and  this,  after  various 

*  Le  due  de  Crequi. 


THE    CREATION   OF    VERSAILLES  ig 

other  attempts  had  failed,  it  was  hoped  to  overcome  by  a 
canal  which  was  to  bring  the  waters  of  the  Eure  to  the 
royal  residence.  In  1681,  22,000  soldiers  and  6,000  horses 
were  employed  in  this  work,  with  such  results  of  sickness, 
that  the  troops  encamped  at  Maintenon,  where  the  chief 
part  of  the  work  was,  became  unfit  for  any  service.  On 
October  12,  1678,  Mme  de  Se'vigne  writes  to  Bussy- 
Rabutin :  — 

"  The  king  wished  to  go  to  Versailles,  but  it  seems  that  God 
did  not  wish  it,  to  judge  from  the  impossibility  of  getting  the 
buildings  in  a  state  to  receive  him  and  by  the  prodigious  mor- 
tality among  the  workmen,  whose  corpses  were  carried  away 
every  night  by  cartloads.  This  sad  procession  was  concealed  lest 
it  should  alarm  the  artisans  and  decry  the  healthfulness  of  this 
'favorite  without  merit.'  You  know  this  hon  mot  about  Ver- 
sailles." 

Nine  millions  were  expended  in  the  Aqueduct  of 
Maintenon,  of  which  the  ruins  are  still  to  be  seen,  then  it 
was  interrupted  by  the  war  of  1688,  and  the  works  were 
never  continued.  Instead,  all  the  water  of  the  pools  and 
the  snow  falling  on  the  plain  between  Rambouillet  and 
Versailles  was  brought  to  the  latter  by  a  series  of  subter- 
ranean water-courses. 

No  difficulties,  however — not  even  pestilence,  or  the 
ruin  of  the  country  by  the  enormous  cost — were  allowed  to 
interfere  with  "les  plaisirs  du  roi."  Tho  palace  rose,  and 
its  gigantic  gardens  were  peopled  with  statues,  its  woods 
with  villages. 

"  The  first  works  at  Versailles  were  directed  by  the  same  Le- 
vau,  from  whom  Colbert  had  taken  the  Louvre.  Levau  dying  in 
1670,  the  direction  of  the  works,  with  the  title  of  first  architect  of 
the  king,  was  entrusted  to  a  very  young  man,  Jules  Hardouin 
Mansart,  whose  uncle,  Francois  Mansart,  had  enjoyed  a  great 
reputation  in  architecture,  and  contributed  more  than  any  one 
else  to  push  builders  into  a  servile  imitation  of  the  antique.    The 


20  OA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 

nephew  eclipsed  the  uncle,  and  became  the  Lebrun  of  architect- 
ure. The  small  but  picturesque  chateau  of  Louis  XIII.  was  sur- 
rounded b}^  immense  constructions,  nearly  in  the  style  of  Per- 
rault,  which  present  to  the  eye  a  richly  ornamented  story  raised 
on  a  simpler  basement  and  crowned  by  an  attic.  On  the  Paris 
side,  where  the  chateau  of  Louis  XIII.  remains  in  view,  the  con- 
trast between  it  and  the  new  buildings  makes  Versailles  an  irreg- 
ular pile,  but  one  of  a  singular  and  striking  effect,  by  the  arrange- 
ment of  the  three  courts  gradually  diminishing  in  size  to  the  third, 
a  kind  of  sanctuary  in  the  depths  of  which  the  Royal  Majesty  re- 
posed. On  the  other  side,  the  aspect  changes  as  by  enchantment  ; 
there,  everything  is  the  work  of  Louis  XIV.,  everything  is  new 
and  completely  symmetric.  The  vast  development  of  the  hori- 
zontal lines  compensate  for  the  want  of  elevation.  There  none 
of  the  happy  contrasts  of  the  old  national  architecture  are  to  be 
seen.  The  monotony  of  this  absolute  uniformity  is  only  inter- 
rupted by  the  extreme  projection  of  the  centre  before  the  two 
wings,  a  projection  which  proclaims  it  the  part  of  the  palace  con- 
secrated by  the  presence  of  the  master.  This  centre  predomi- 
nates, whether  it  is  viewed  in  front  from  the  middle  of  the  garden, 
or  whether  from  the  foot  of  the  low  hills  of  Satory,  it  is  seen,  in 
flank,  towering  on  its  immense  terrace,  between  the  double 
'Giant  Stairs,'  to  which  nothing  can  be  compared.  Everywhere 
an  ascent  has  to  be  mounted,  in  order  to  reach  the  spot  where 
Supreme  Majesty  sits  enthroned. 

"The  same  thought  fills  the  interior.  Painting  there  deifies 
Louis  in  every  form,  in  war  and  peace,  in  art  and  in  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  empire  ;  it  celebrates  his  loves  and  his  victories, 
his  passions  and  his  labors.  All  the  heroes  of  antiquity,  all  the 
deities  of  Olympus  render  homage  to  him  in  lending  him  their 
attributes  in  turn.  He  is  Augustus,  he  is  Titus,  he  is  Alexander, 
he  is  Jupiter  Tonans,  he  is  Hercules  vanquishing  monsters  ; 
more  often,  he  is  Apollo  inspiring  the  Muses,  and  King  of  Light. 
Mythology  is  nothing  more,  than  a  great  enigma  to  which  the 
name  of  Louis  is  the  only  answer,  his  name  alone  among  all  the 
gods.  If  the  gods  abdicate  before  him,  kings  and  nations  are 
prostrated  at  his  feet.  As  his  reign  rolls  lengthening  on,  art  re- 
produces on  canvas  or  in  marble,  in  a  strain  of  hyperbole,  each 
of  his  triumphs,  and  each  humiliation  of  his  enemies,  and  fixes 
on  the  brilliant  vaults  of  Versailles  a  perpetual  hosanna  in  honor 
of  the  future  master  of  the  world. 

"  His  age,  prolific  in  men  of  talent,  served  Louis  in  all  his 


THE    CREATION  OF    VERSAILLES  2 1 

desires,  and  gave  him  a  third  artist,  Lenostre,  to  complete  Lebrun 
and  Mansart.  Thanks  to  Lenostre,  Louis  from  the  windows  of 
his  incomparable  galcrie  des  glaces,  saw  nothing  that  was  hot  his 
creation.  The  whole  horizon  is  his  work,  for  his  garden  embraces 
the  whole  horizon  ;  it  is  at  once  the  master-piece  of  the  marvellous 
artist  who  covered  France  with  his  monuments  of  verdure,  and 
the  master-piecs  of  that  singular  art  which  must  be  judged  not  in 
isolation,  but  in  reference  to  the  buildings  to  whose  line^  it  unites 
its  lines,  an  architecture  of  vegetation  which  frames  and  completes 
the  architecture  oi  otone  and  marble.  Entire  groves  were 
brought,  full  grown,  from  the  depths  of  the  finest  forests  of 
France,  and  the  art  of  animating  marble  and  the  art  of  mov- 
ing water,  fill  them  with  all  the  wonders  of  which  imagination 
could  dream.  An  innumerable  people  of  statues  animate  the 
thickets  and  the  lawns,  is  reflected  in  the  waters  or  rises  from  the 
bosom  of  the  waves.  All  the  deities  of  the  woods,  the  rivers  and 
the  sea,  all  the  dreams  of  ancient  poetry  seem  to  have  gathered  at 
the  feet  of  the  great  king.  Neptune  seems  to  send  forth  from  all 
sides  his  jets  of  waters  that  cross  in  the  air  in  sparkling  curves; 
Neptune  becomes  the  servant  of  Louis  ;  Diana,  the  solitary  god- 
dess of  the  woods,  becomes  his  mistress  under  the  lineaments  of 
the  chaste  La  Valliere.  Apollo,  his  favorite  symbol,  presides 
over  all  this  enchanted  world.  At  the  two  extremities  of  the  view 
is  seen  the  mythological  sun,  the  transparent  emblem  of  the  sun 
of  Louis,  rising  from  the  floods  in  his  car  to  enlighten  and  rule 
the  world,  and  plunging  into  them  again  uO  cast  aside  the  govern- 
ment of  heaven  in  the  voluptuous  shadow  cf  the  grotto  01  Thetis. 
"  Louis' will  was  fulfilled.  He  created  around  him  a  little 
universe,  in  which  he  was  the  only  necessary  being,  and  almost 
the  only  real  being." — Martin,  ''Hist,  de  France. '' 

Oh  !  que  Versailles  etait  superbe 
Dans  ces  jours  purs  de  tout  affront 
Ou  les  prosperites  en  gerbe 
S'epanouissaient  sur  son  front  ! 
La,  tout  faste  etait  sans  mesure  ; 
La,  tout  arbre  avait  sa  parure  ; 
La,  tout  homme  avait  sa  dorure  ; 
Tout  du  maitre  suivait  la  loi. 
Comme  au  meme  but  vont  cent  routes. 
La  les  grandeurs  abondaient  toutes  ; 
L'Olympe  ne  pendait  aux  voutes 
Que  pour  completer  le  grand  roi ! 


22  £>AVS  NEAR   PARIS 

Vers  le  temps  ou  naissaient  nos  peres 
Versailles  rayonnait  encore. 
Les  lions  ont  de  grands  repaires  ; 
Les  princes  ont  des  palais  d'or. 
Chaque  fois  que,  foule  asservie, 
l^e  peuple  au  coeur  ronge  d'envie 
Contemplait  du  fond  de  sa  vie 
Le  fier  chateau  si  radieux, 
Rentrant  dans  sa  nuit  plus  livide, 
II  emportait  dans  son  oeil  vide 
Un  eblouissement  splendide 
De  rois,  de  femmes  et  de  dieux  ! 

Victor  Hugo,  '''Les  Voix  Interieiires." 

Under  Louis  XV.,  Versailles  was  chiefly  remarkable  as 
being  the  scene  of  the  extravagance  of  Mme  de  Pompa- 
dour and  the  turpitude  of  Mme  du  Barry.  Mme  Campan 
has  described  for  us  the  hfe,  the  very  dull  life,  there  of 
"  Mesdames,"  daughters  of  the  king.  Yet,  till  the  great 
Revolution,  since  which  it  has  been  only  a  shadow  of  its 
former  self,  the  town  of  Versailles  drew  all  its  life  from  the 
chateau. 

"The  life  of  this  secondary  town  is  the  same  as  the  life  of 
the  chateau,  and  the  life  of  the  chateau  is  known  at  the  end  of 
one  day's  examination.  What  was  done  one  day  will  be  done, 
exactl)',  the  next  ;  and  whoever  knows  one  day,  knows  the  whole 
year." — Tableau  de  Paris,  1782. 

"  Since  the  days  of  the  Caesars,  no  single  human  life  occu- 
pied so  much  space  beneath  the  sun.  In  the  Rue  des  Reservoirs 
were  the  old  and  the  new  hotels  of  the  Governor  of  Versailles, 
the  hotels  of  the  governor  of  the  children  of  the  Count  d'Artois, 
the  garde-meuble  of  the  crown,  the  building  for  the  lodgings  and 
dressing-rooms  of  the  actors  playing  at  the  Palace,  Monsieur's 
stables  ;  in  the  Rue  des  Bons-Enfants,  the  hotel  of  the  ward- 
robe, the  lodging  of  the  managers  of  the  water-works,  the  hotel  of 
the  officers  of  the  Comtesse  de  Provence  ;  in  the  Rue  de  la 
Pompe,  the  hotel  of  the  Grand -Provost,  the  stables  of  the  Duke 
of  Orleans,  the  hotel  of  the  guards  of  the  Comte  d'Artois,  the 
queen's  stables,  the  pavilion  of  the  Springs  ;  in  the  Rue  Sator}', 
the  stables  of  the  Comtesse  d'Artois,  Monsieur's  English  garden, 


THE    CREATION-  OF    VERSAILLES  23 

the  king's  ice-houses,  the  iiding-school  of  the  light  horse  of  the 
King's  Guard,  the  garden  of  the  hotel  of  the  treasurers  of  the  build- 
ings. From  these  four  streets,  judge  of  the  rest.  You  cannot 
take  a  hundred  steps  in  this  city  without  meeting  an  appendix  to 
the  palace  ;  hotel  of  the  staff  of  the  bod^'-guards,  hotel  of  the 
staff  of  the  light  horse  ;  the  immense  hotel  of  the  body-guard,  the 
hotel  of  the  gendarmes  of  the  guard,  hotels  of  the  Grand  Lou- 
vetier,  the  Grand  Falconer,  the  grand  huntsman,  the  grand  master, 
the  commander  of  the  canal,  the  controller-geneial,  the  superin- 
tendent of  buildings,  the  hotel  of  the  chancellery,  the  buildings 
of  the  falconry  and  aviary,  of  the  boar-hounds,  the  great  kennel, 
the  dauphin's  kennel,  the  kennel  of  the  so-called  green  hounds,  the 
hotel  of  court  carriages,  the  warehouse  of  the  buildings  and  fur- 
niture, workshops  and  storerooms  for  the  same,  the  grand  stable, 
the  little  stable,  other  stables  in  the  Rue  de  Limoges,  in  the  Rue 
Royale,  and  the  Avenue  de  Saint  Cloud  ;  the  king's  kitchen  gar- 
den, comprising  twent^'-nine  gardens  and  four  terraces,  \\\q,  grand 
commiDi,  inhabited  by  two  thousand  people,  houses  and  hotels 
styled  Louis,  where  the  king  assigned  lodgings  for  a  time  or  for 
life.  These  words  on  paper  cannot  give  the  physical  impression 
of  the  physical  immensity.  To-day  only  bits  remain  of  that  an- 
cient Versailles,  mutilated  and  appropriated  to  other  uses  ;  but  go 
and  see  them  nevertheless.  Look  at  the  three  avenues  that  meet 
in  the  grand  square,  forty  toises  wide,  four  hundred  long,  and 
which  still  were  not  too  large  for  the  crowd,  the  movement,  the 
giddy  speed  of  escorts  dashing  out  headlong,  and  carriages  driv- 
ing a  tombeau  ouvert ;  see,  in  fro"nt  of  the  chateau,  the  two  stables, 
with  their  railings  of  thirty-two  toises,  that  cost  in  1682  three 
millions,  that  is  to  say,  fifteen  millions  of  to-day,  so  simple  and 
so  beautiful  that,  under  Louis  XIV.  himself  they  were  used  at 
one  time  for  a  field  for  the  cavalcades  of  the  princes,  at  another, 
for  a  theatre,  and  at  another  for  a  ball-room.  Then  follow  with 
your  eye  the  development  of  the  gigantic  semicircular  Place, 
which,  from  railing  to  railing,  from  court  to  court,  went  on  rising 
and  closing,  at  first  between  the  hotels  of  the  ministers,  then  be- 
tween the  two  colossal  wings,  to  end  in  the  haughty  enclosure  of 
the  marble  court,  where  pilasters,  statues,  pediments,  ornaments, 
multiplied  and  piled  up  stage  after  stage,  lift  to  heaven  the  ma- 
jestic sternness  of  their  lines  and  the  overcharged  display  of  their 
ornamentation.  According  to  a  manuscript,  stamped  with  the 
arms  of  Mansart,  the  palace  cost  153  millions,  that  is,  about  750 
millions  of  to-day.     When  a  king  wishes  to  display  himself,  this 


24 


DA  YS  NEAR  PARIS 


is  the  price  of  his  dwelling.  Now  cast  your  eyes  to  the  other 
side,  to  the  gardens,  and  the  displa)'^  of  ro)^alty  becomes  more 
clear.  The  parterres  and  the  park  are  a  salon  in  the  open  air  ; 
nature  has  there  nothing  natural  ;  it  is  entirely  arranged  and 
straightened  out  with  a  view  to  society  ;  it  is  not  a  place  to  be 
alone  and  stretch  one's  self,  but  a  spot  to  walk  in  company  and 
exchange  salutations.  The  upright  hornbeams  are  walls  and 
hangings.  The  clipped  yews  figure  as  vases  and  h'res.  The  par- 
terres are  carpets  with  borders.  In  these  straight,  rectilinear 
alleys  the  king,  cane  in  hand,  will  gather  round  him  all  his  suite. 
Sixty  ladies,  in  gold-embroidered  robes,  puffed  out  over  hoops 
twenty-four  feet  in  circumference,  can  walk  without  inconve- 
nience on  the  steps  of  these  stairs.  These  cabinets  of  verdure  can 
shelter  a  princely  banquet.  Under  the  circular  portico  all  the 
lords  who  have  the  entry  to  the  chamber  can  join  in  witnessing 
the  play  of  a  new  fountain.  They  will  find  their  parallels  even 
in  the  figures  of  marble  or  bronze  that  people  the  alleys  and  the 
basins,  in  the  dignified  countenance  of  an  Apollo,  in  the  theatri- 
cal air  of  a  Jupiter,  in  the  high-world  ease  and  studied  careless- 
ness of  a  Diana  or  a  Venus.  The  gods  themselves  are  of  their 
world.  Stamped  b)^  the  efforts  of  a  whole  society,  and  of  a  whole 
age,  the  imprint  of  the  court  is  so  strong  that  it  is  graven  on  de- 
tails as  well  as  on  the  whole,  on  things  material  as  well  as  on 
things  spiritual." — Taine,  "  Orig.  de  France  Contempofaine." 

Approaching  from  the  town,  on  entering  the  grille  of 
the  palace  from  the  Place  d'Armes  we  find  ourselves  in 
the  vast  Cour  des  Statues — "  solennelle  et  morne."  In  the 
centre  is  an  equestrian  statue  of  Louis  XIV.  by  Fctitot  and 
CartelUer.  Many  of  the  surrounding  statues  were  brought 
from  the  Pont  de  la  Concorde  at  Paris.  Two  projecting 
wings  shut  in  the  Cour  Royale,  and  separate  it  from  the 
Cour  des  Princes  on  the  left,  and  the  Cour  de  la  Chapelle 
on  the  right.  Beyond  the  Cour  Royale,  deeply  recessed 
amongst  later  buildings,  is  the  court  called,  from  its  pave- 
ment, the  Cour  de  Marbre,  surrounded  by  the  little  old 
red  Chateau  of  Louis  XIII. 

"  Instead  of  entirely  destroying  the  little  chateau  and  making 
a  new  vast  plan,  the  king,  in  order  to  save  the  old  chateau,  built 


COURT  OF   THE   PALACE 


25 


all  around  it  and  covered  it,  in  a  fashion,  with  a  beautiful  mantle 
which  spoiled  all." — Correspondaiicc  dc  Madame. 

The  Cour  de  Marbre  was  sometimes  used  as  a  theatre 
under  Louis  XIV.,  and  the  opera  of  Alcestis  was  given 
there.  It  has  a  peculiar  interest,  for  no  stranger  can  look 
up  at  the  balcony  of  the  first  floor  without  recalling  Marie 
Antoinette  presenting  herself  there,  alone,  to  the  fury  of 
the  people,  October  6,  1789. 

"All  was  sobs  and  confusion  around  their  Majesties,  while 
the  queen,  with  noble  and  touching  firmness,  consoled  and  en- 
couraged everybody.  '  I  have  the  courage  to  know  how  to  die,' 
she  said,  'but  I  would  wish,  at  least,  that  those  who  are  vile 
enough  to  play  the  part  of  assassins  should  have  the  conscious- 
ness of  their  crime,  that  is,  show  themselves  as  they  are.'  Some 
time  afterwards,  when  the  ministers  had  arrived  in  the  king's 
apartments,  some  gun-shots  were  discharged  in  the  courts,  and 
directed  against  the  windows  of  the  room  of  her  Majesty,  It  was 
told  me  that  M.  de  la  Luzerne,  minister  of  marine,  having  seen  a 
ball  strike  the  wall  near  the  window  where  the  queen  stood,  ad- 
vanced and  glided,  as  if  from  curiosit}^  between  her  and  the 
window.  The  motive  of  the  movement  did  not  escape  the  queen. 
■'  I  see,'  she  said  to  M.  de  la  Luzerne,  'what  your  intention  is, 
and  I  thank  you,  but  I  do  not  wish  you  to  remain  there.  It  is 
not  your  place,  it  is  mine.'     And  she  forced  him  to  retire.   .   .   . 

"  Her  Majesty  appeared  for  the  second  time  at  the  balcony. 
At  this  second  appearance  a  voice  demanded,  '  The  queen  on  the 
balcony  ! '  The  princess,  who  was  never  so  great  or  more  noble 
than  when  danger  was  most  imminent,  presented  herself  without 
hesitation  on  the  balcony,  holding  the  Dauphin  in  one  hand  and 
Madame  Royale  in  the  other.  A  voice  then  exclaimed,  '  No 
children  !  '  The  queen,  by  a  backward  movement  of  the  arms, 
pushed  the  children  back  into  the  room  and  remained  alone  on 
the  balcon}^  crossing  her  arms  on  her  breast  with  a  countenance 
of  a  calm  nobility  and  dignity  impossible  to  depict,  and  seemed 
to  wait  for  death.  This  act  of  resignation  so  astonished  the 
assassins  and  inspired  such  admiration  in  the  mob  that  a  general 
clapping  of  hands  and  '  Bravo  !  long  live  the  queen  !'  repeated  on 
all  sides,  disconcerted  the  malevolent.  Nevertheless,  I  saw  one 
of  the  madmen  aim  at  the  queen,  and  his  neighbor  strike  down 
with  his  hand  the  barrel  of  the  gun." — Weber,  ''  Aldmoires." 


26  DA  VS  NEAR   PARIS 

The  palace  of  Versailles  has  never  been  inhabited  by- 
royalty  since  the  chain  of  carriages  drove  into  this  court 
on  Oct.  6  to  convey  Louis  XVI.  and  his  family  to  Paris. 

"  Yes,  TIlc  king  to  Paris  :  what  else?  Ministers  may  consuh, 
and  National  Deputies  wag  their  heads  ;  but  there  is  now  no 
other  possibility.  You  have  forced  him  to  go  willingl)^  'At 
one  o'clock  !  '  Lafayette  gives  audible  assurances  to  that  pur- 
pose ;  and  universal  insurrection,  with  immeasurable  shout,  and 
a  discharge  of  all  the  fire-arms,  clean  and  rusty,  great  and  small, 
that  it  has,  returns  him  acceptance.  V\^hat  a  sound  ;  heard  for 
leagues  ;  a  doom-peal  !  And  the  Chateau  of  Versailles  stands 
ever  since  vacant,  hushed,  still,  its  spacious  courts  grass-grown, 
responsive  to  the  hoe  of  the  weeder." — Carlyle. 

From  the  Grajide  Cour  the  gardens  may  be  reached  by 
passages  either  from  the  Coiir  des  Princes  on  the  left,  or 
from  the  Cour  de  la  Chapelle  on  the  right.  The  palace  has 
had  three  chapels  in  turn.  The  first,  built  by  Louis  XIII. , 
was  close  to  the  marble  staircase.  The  second,  built  by- 
Louis  XIV.,  occupied  the  site  of  the  existing  Salon 
d'Hercule.  The  present  Chapel^  built  1 699-1 710,  is  the 
last  work  of  Mansart. 

"  This  beautiful  chapel  of  Versailles,  as  far  as  workmanship 
and  decoration  are  concerned,  which  cost  so  many  millions,  and 
is  so  badly  proportioned  that  it  seems  a  charnel  house  high  above 
ground,  threatening  to  crush  the  chateau,  was  made  so  by  a  trick. 
Mansart  only  took  into  account  the  proportions  of  the  tribunes 
and  designedly  built  this  horrible  elevation  above  the  chateau  in 
order,  by  its  deformity,  to  compel  the  raising  of  the  chateau  by 
an  additional  story.  Without  the  breaking  out  of  the  war,  dur- 
ing which  he  died,  this  would  have  been  done," — St.  Simon, 
"  Memoires." 

"Louis  XIV.  did  not  like  domes,  and  when  he  asked  his 
favorite  architect,  Hardouin-Mansart,  whom  he  had  just  named 
superintendent  of  buildings  in  place  of  the  Marquis  de  Villecerf, 
who  died  in  1699,  for  the  plan  of  the  cliapel  of  Versailles,  he  was 
careful  to  say,  as  his  only  instruction,  '  Above  all,  no  dome  ! '  " — 
Paid  Lacroix, 


THE    CHAPEL  2*J 

Here  we  may  think  of  Bossuet,  thundering  before 
Louis  XIV.  "  les  royaumes  meurent,  sire,  comme  les  rois," 
and  of  the  words  of  Massillon,  ''  Si  Je'sus-Christ  paraissait 
dans  ce  temple,  au  miUeu  de  cette  assemble'e,  la  plus 
auguste  de  I'univers,  pour  vous  juger,  pour  faire  le  terrible 
discernement,"  &c.  Here  also  we  may  imagine  Louis 
XIV.  daily  assisting  at  the  mass,  and  his  courtiers,  es- 
pecially the  ladies,  attending  also  to  flatter  him,  but  gladly 
escaping,  if  they  thought  he  would  not  be  there. 

"  Brissac,  major  of  the  body-guard,  could  not  abide  an}*  du- 
plicity. He  was  anno3'ed  at  seeing  all  the  tribunes  lined  with 
ladies  in  the  winter  at  the  salut  on  Fridays  and  Sundays,  when  the 
king  almost  never  failed  to  be  present,  while  very  few  were  there 
when  it  was  known  in  time  that  he  would  not  come,  and  under 
the  pretense  of  reading  their  'hours,'  they  all  had  little  tapers 
before  them,  so  that  they  could  be  recognized  and  remarked. 
One  evening  when  the  king  was  going  to  the  sahit,  and  while  the 
evening  prayers  were  being  said  which  preceded  the  sakit,  all  the 
guards  at  their  posts,  and  the  ladies  in  their  places,  the  major 
came,  towards  the  end  of  the  prayers,  and,  showing  himself  in  the 
vacant  seat  of  the  king,  raised  his  baton  and  cried  in  a  loud  tone : 
'  Royal  Guards,  withdraw  !  Back  to  your  quarters  !  The  king 
will  not  come.'  The  guards  obe)"ed  at  once,  there  were  murmurs 
among  the  ladies,  the  little  tapers  were  put  out,  and  soon  they 
had  all  left,  except  the  Duchess  de  Guiche,  Mme  de  Dangeau, 
and  one  or  two  others  who  remained.  Brissac  had  placed  some 
subaltern  officers  at  the  exits  of  the  chapel  to  stop  the  guards, 
and  order  them  back  to  their  posts,  as  soon  as  the  ladies  were  so 
far  away  as  to  have  no  suspicions.  Thereupon  the  king  arrived, 
and,  much  surprised  not  to  see  the  tribunes  filled  with  ladies, 
asked  how  it  happened  that  no  one  was  there.  On  leaving  the 
ceremony,  Brissac  told  him  what  he  had  done,  not  without  enlarg- 
ing on  the  piety  of  the  court  ladies.  The  king,  and  all  with  him, 
laughed  very  much.  The  story  spread  immediatel3^  and  all  the 
ladies  would  have  liked  to  strangle  him." — St.  SiJiton,''  Memoires," 
1708. 

"I  remember  an  edifying  and  beautiful  discourse  by  Massil- 
lon  that  was  interrupted  by  a  burst  of  laughter  from  the  Duchesse 
de  Boufflers.     The  text  was,  *  Happy  are  the  peoples  whose  kings 


28  DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 

are  of  ancient  race.'  There  was  certainly  nothing  in  it  of  a  nature 
to  provoke  peals  of  laughter,  but  every  time  the  sacred  text  was 
repeated  by  the  lips  of  the  orator,  M.  de  Villeroy,  Governor  of  H. 
M.,  was  melted  to  tears  and  sobbed  while  gazing  in  an  obsequious 
manner  on  the  king,  and  made  such  grimaces  that  the  poor  young 
lady  would  not  resist  it,  which  made  a  great  scandal." — Souvenirs 
de  la  Marquise  de  la  Creqtii. 

The  carefully  organized  system  of  etiquette  was  ob- 
served nowhere  more  carefully  than  in  the  chapel,  espe- 
cially ^hen  the  king  communicated. 

"After  the  elevation  of  the  Host,  a  fauld-stool  was  placed 
below  the  altar  at  the  spot  where  the  priest  begins  service  ;  it  was 
covered  with  a  cloth,  and  then  with  a  large  piece  of  linen  hanging 
down  before  and  behind.  At  the  Pater  iVoster,  the  almoner  of  the 
day  rose  and  whispered  into  the  king's  ear  the  names  of  all  the 
dukes  present  in  the  chapel.  The  king  gave  him  two  names  ;  always 
those  of  the  oldest,  to  each  of  whom  the  almoner,  immediately 
afterwards,  advanced  and  made  a  reverence.  The  priest  having 
communicated,  the  king  rose  and  went  to  kneel,  without  carpet 
or  hassock,  before  the  fauld-stool,  and  took  hold  of  the  linen  ;  then 
the  two  dukes  who  had  been  warned,  and  who,  with  the  captain  of 
the  guards  on  duty,  had  alone  risen  from  their  hassocks  and  fol- 
lowed him,  the  oldest  on  the  right,  the  other  on  the  left,  took  hold 
at  the  same  time  as  the  king,  each  of  one  corner  of  the  linen,  which 
they  held  on  the  king's  side,  while  the  two  almoners  in  attendance 
held  the  other  two  corners  on  the  side  next  the  altar,  all  four  on  their 
knees,  and  the  captain  of  the  guards  also,  who  knelt  alone  behind 
the  king.  After  the  communion  and  ablution,  the  king  remained 
a  little  longer  in  the  same  place,  and  then  returned  to  his  seat, 
followed  by  the  captain  of  the  guards  and  the  two  dukes,  who 
resumed  their  places.  If  a  son  of  France  was  there  alone,  he 
alone  held  the  right  corner  of  the  linen  napkin,  and  no  one  held 
the  other  ;  and  when  the  Duke  of  Orleans  was  there  and  no  son 
of  France,  the  same  form  was  kept.  A  prince  of  the  blood,  if 
present,  took  no  part  in  the  service  with  him,  but  if  only  a  prince 
of  the  blood  was  present,  one  duke,  instead  of  two,  was  warned, 
and  he  served  on  the  left,  with  the  prince  of  the  blood  on  the  right 
hand." — St.  Simon,  1707. 

It  was  in  the  chapel  that  the  flattery  of  royalty  took  its 
strongest  form. 


THE   CHAPEL 


29 


"When  Mme  the  Dauphiness  celebrated  Easter,  there  were 
'  select  hosts'  for  this  princess  ;  God  evidently  displayed  a  select 
real  presence  for  the  daughter-in-law  of  the  great  king." — Dan- 
geati. 

In  the  devotion  which  characterized  the  last  years  of 

Louis  XIV.'s  life,  he  was  constantly  in  the  chapel.     We 

read  in  a  letter  of  Mme  de  Maintenon  (1686)  : — 

"  The  king  was  at  matins  last  night  ;  he  heard  three  masses  ; 
he  was  at  high  mass  to-day,  after  which  he  went  to  s«^e  Madame, 
with  whom  he  passed  an  hour.  He  went  also  to  Mme  the  Dau- 
phiness, and  thence  to  sermon.     He  heard  musical  vespers." 

At  this  time  he  had  become  equally  severe  as  to  the 

religious  practice  and  the  dress  of  his  courtiers,  male  as 

well  as  female. 

"The  courtier,  of  olden  times,  wore  his  hair,  had  trunks  and 
pourpoint,  wore  large  canons,  and  was  a  libertine.  This  is  out 
of  place  now.  He  wears  a  v.-ig,  a  tight  coat,  close  stockings, 
and  is  pious.  Everything  is  regulated  by  fashion." — La  Brnyere, 
''  De  la  Mode:'' 

We  are  able  to  picture  the  scene  in  this  chapel  during 

the  last  moments  of  Louis  XV. 

"  It  was  evening  ;  the  ro3'al  family  and  all  the  court  were 
prostrate  in  the  superb  and  imposing  chapel  of  the  chateau.  The 
sacrament  was  exposed,  the  prayers  of  forty  hours  chanted,  and 
supplications  offered  to  God  for  the  recovery  of  the  dying  mon- 
arch. Suddenly  black  clouds  veiled  the  sky,  night  seemed  to 
envelop  the  chapel  in  its  shades,  and  the  first  peal  of  thunder 
was  heard  ;  soon  came  the  whistling  winds,  the  torrents  of  rali 
dashing  against  the  windows,  the  lightning  flashes,  which  every 
instant  made  the  tapers  lighted  on  the  altar  turn  pale,  and  sent  an 
awful  gleam  through  the  melancholy  obscurity  ;  then  the  dull  roll- 
ing, or  the  threatening  crash  of  the  thunder  that  seemed  to  rend 
the  veil  of  the  temple  ;  the  songs  of  the  church  continued  through 
the  tempest,  the  impression  of  terror  in  every  voice  and  on  every 
face  ;  heaven  thundering  while  the  God  of  mercy  was  invoked  ; 
the  war  of  all  the  elements,  which  it  was  impossible  not  to  asso- 
ciate in  thought  with  the  destruction  of  the  most  powerful  of  men, 
the  sight  of  the  young  heir  and  his  young  companion,  both  ap- 


30  ,       ^^  ^^^  NEAR   PARIS 

palled,  both  weeping  between  the  altar,  Avhich  they  implored  in 
vain,  the  tomb  into  which  they  saw  their  father  descending,  and 
the  throne  which  the}-  shuddered  to  mount  ;  then  the  departure 
from  the  chapel  when  the  service  was  over,  the  abstraction,  the 
deep  silence,  in  which  no  voice  was  heard,  but  only  hasty  steps, 
as  each  hurried  to  his  room,  in  order  to  breathe  freely  from  the 
weight  that  oppressed  him.  This  scene  was  also  reckoned  among 
the  threatening  auspices  under  which  the  new  reign  opened." — 
Weber,  ^^  Me'i/ioires." 

On  Sundays  and  fete  days  there  is  always  a  musical  low 
mass  in  the  chapel  at  c)  a.m. 

In  describing  the  Mnsee,  the  apartments  are  taken  in 
the  order  in  which  they  are  usually  visited,  and  which  it  is 
better  to  follow,  if  one  does  not  wish  to  be  lost.  All  the 
furniture  of  Versailles  was  sold  during  the  Revolution  (in 
1793),  and,  though  a  few  pieces  have  been  recovered,  the 
palace  is  for  the  most  part  unfurnished,  and  little  more 
than  a  vast  picture-gallery.  From  the  antechamber  of  the 
chapel  open  two  galleries  on  the  ground  floor  of  the  north 
wing.  One  is  the  Galerie  dcs  Sculptures  ;  the  other,  divided 
by  diiTerent  rooms  looking  on  the  garden,  is  the  Galerie 
de  I Histoire  de  France.  The  first  six  rooms  of  the  latter 
formed  the  apartments  of  the  Due  de  Maine,  the  much  in- 
dulged son  of  Louis  XIV.  and  Mme  de  Montespan. 

Where  there  are  such  acres  of  pictures,  and  where  all 
are  named,  we  only  notice  here  those  which  are  remarkable 
as  works  of  art  or  of  historic  interest  connected  with  the 
place  itself. 

Salle  IV.— 

Ary  Scheffer.  The  Death  of  Gaston  de  Foix  at  the  Battle 
of  Ravenna. 

Salle  VIIL— 

Pezey.  Louis  XIV.  receiving  the  Oath  of  Dangeau,  Grand- 
Mastcr  of  the  Order  of  St.  Lazarc  ;  a  picture  interesting  here  as 
representing  the  original  chapel. 


THE    SALLE   DE   L OPERA  31 

Salle  XI. — Pictures  iiiuslratue  of  the  life  of  Louis 
XVI. 

At  the  end  of  the  gallery  (but  only  to  be  entered  now 
from  the  Rue  des  Reservoirs)  is  \\\^  Salle  de  I Ope?-a.  In 
spite  of  the  passion  of  Louis  XIV.  for  dramatic  represen- 
tations, no  theatre  was  built  in  the  palace  during  his  reign. 
Some  of  the  plays  of  Moliere  and  Racine  were  acted  in 
improvised  theatres  in  the  park  ;  others,  in  the  halls  of  the 
palace,  without  scenery  or  costumes  ;  the  Athalie  of  Racine, 
before  the  king  and  Mme  de  Maintenon,  by  the  young 
ladies  of  St.  Cyr.  The  present  Opera  House  was  begun 
by  Jacques  Ange-Gabriel  under  Louis  XV.  for  Mme  de 
Pompadour,  and  finished  for  Mme  du  Barry. 

"  Disposition  des  plus  heureuses,  grandioses  d'ensemble  et 
de  style,  risthesse  et  harm5nie  de  details,  tout  se  trouve  reuni  pour 
faire  de  cette  salle  un  incomparable  chef-d'osuvre." — Vaiidoyer. 

The  Opera  House  was  inaugurated  on  the  marriage  of 

the  Dauphin  with  Marie  Antoinette,  and  nineteen  years 

after  was  the  scene  of  that  banquet,  the  incidents  of  which 

were  represented  in  a  manner  so  fatal  to  the  monarchy, 

given  by  the  body-guard  of  the  king  to  the  officers  of  a 

regiment  which  had  arrived  from  Flanders. 

"The  king  was  informed  of  the  ardent  enthusiasm  that 
animated  this  assembly  of  loyal  chevaliers,  and  the  oath  which 
these  soldiers  had  renewed  to  defend,  to  the  last  gasp,  the  masters 
who  had  hitherto  been  an  object  of  veneration  and  love  to  their 
people.  Their  Majesties  and  their  children  came  with  a  slender 
suite  to  honor  and  embellish  this  assemblage  by  their  presence. 
They  were  invited  by  M.  the  Comte  de  Tcsse,  equerry  of  the 
queen,  and  by  the  Comte  d'Agoult,  major  of  the  Life  Guards, 
who,  struck  by  the  sight  of  the  house,  the  number  of  guests,  the 
effect  of  the  horse-shoe  table,  the  lighting  of  the  hall,  and  the 
throng  of  spectators  grouped  in  the  boxes,  justly  believed  that 
such  a  spectacle  could  not  but  interest  the  ro)^al  family.  It 
entered  at  first  the  first  boxes  opposite  the  stage.  The  musicians 
struck    up,  amidst  loud  applause,   the  popular  air,   '  Oh  peut-on 


32 


£>AVS  NEAR   PARIS 


ctre  mit'ux  quau  sehi  de  sa  fa/nilie?'  The  air  was  accompanied 
with  redoubled  acclamations.  '  Vive  le  roi  !  vive  la  reine  !  vive  la 
faiiiille  royale!'  The  august  family  was  soon  requested  to  descend 
and  make  the  tour  of  the  room.  Marie  Antoinette,  by  an  irre- 
sistible impulse,  imitating  her  august  mother,  took  the  Dauphin 
by  the  hand  and  led  him  around  the  tables,  proud  of  displaying 
to  the  generous  defenders  of  the  throne  the  fair  child  who  was 
the  presumptive  heir.  At  the  view  of  so  much  majesty  and 
grace,  such  beauty  and  innocence,  the  intoxication  of  feeling  and 
admiration  rose  to  a  climax  ;  tears  of  sensibilit}^  filled  every  e3^e 
and  the  music  gave  out  the  touching  strains  from  Richard  Cceur 
de  Lion  : 

'  0  Richard  !  O  vion  roi  ! 
Vunivers  f  abandonne. ' 

"This  air,  which  made  such  a  striking  allusion  to  the  situation 
of  Louis  XVI.,  and  which  had  been  for  some  time  forbidden  in 
France,  was  repeated  in  chorus  from  all  the  benches.  Never  was 
there  so  loyal  a  concert,  never  did  a  purer  sentiment  electrify  a 
whole  assembly.  The  august  countenances  of  the  king  and 
queen  bore,  on  that  evening,  the  imprint  of  contentment  and 
happiness  in  place  of  the  melancholy  they  had  exhibited  for 
many  months. 

"  In  the  evening,  the  ladies  of  the  Court  formed  with  pieces 
of  white  paper  some  cockades  that  they  distributed  in  the  private 
rooms  of  the  chateau  to  the  body-guards  and  the  officers  they  met 
on  their  way.  All  this  was  done  in  gaiety  and  simplicity,  and 
ought  not  to  have  been  regarded  as  out  of  the  French  character  ; 
it  was  the  expression  of  great  devotion  for  the  king  and  his 
family.  How  could  such  a  demonstration  of  joy  in  the  royal 
palace  be  regarded  as  a  crime  ?" —  Weber,  "  M^moircs" 

Returning  from  the  end  of  the  picture  gallery,  we  may 

pass  through  the  Galerie  des  Sculptures^  chiefly  casts  from 

royal  and  other  monuments.     Some,  however,  are  brought 

from    Paris   churches    destroyed  at   the  Revolution,  and 

amongst  these  we  may  especially  notice,  beginning  at  the 

entrance — 

1879,   1880.  The  Due  dc  Vitry,  Marechal  de  France,  and  his 

wife,  1666. 
1892.   Henri  Chabot,  Due  de  Rohan.     By  Fran5ois  Angular. 


ATTIQUE   DU  NORD  33 

1885.   Louis  Potier,  Marquis  de  Gesvres,  1643.     By  Lehongr. 

1883.   Rene  Potier,  Due  de  Tresmes,  1670. 

1898.   Francois  d'Argouges,  first  President  of  the  Parliament 

of  Brittany.     By  Co3'sevox. 
1915.   Ferdinand  Philippe  Louis,  Due  d'Orleans,   1842.      By 

Pradier. 
1901.   Philippe  d'Orleans,  Regent  of  France.     By  Lemoyne. 
*i854.  Jeanne  Dare.     By  Princess  Marie  d'Orleans,  daughter 

of  Louis  Philippe. 

"If  it  does  not  give  the  enthusiastic  majesty  of  Jeanne,  at 
least  it  gives  her  purit}^  her  grace  and  her  resigned  devotion.  It 
is  the  work  of  a  young  woman  less  illustrious  by  her  blood  than 
by  her  talent  and  noble  character,  whose  early  end  all  France 
has  to  regret." — Martin,    "  Hist,  de  France.'' 

Near  (left)  a  cast  from  the  great  monument  of  Ferdi- 
nand and  Isabella,  we  enter  a  suite  of  five  rooms  formerly 
occupied  by  the  ladies  and  gentlemen  in  waiting,  adorned 
with  modern  historic  pictures,  and  known  from  their  sub- 
jects as  Salles  des  Croisades.  Returning  to  the  Galerie  de 
Sculpture  and  following  it  to  the  vestibule  of  the  chapel, 
we  must  now  take  the  little  staircase  on  the  left  of  the 
chapel,  which  will  conduct  us  to  another  vestibule  of  the 
chapel  on  the  first  floor.  Here  we  enter  (right)  the  sec- 
ond Galerie  de  Sculpture.,  from  the  midst  of  which  we  reach 
the  Salles  de  Peinture,  called  Galerie  de  Cofisfantin,  a  set 
of  seven  rooms  adorned  with  modern  historic  pictures  and 
busts,  some  of  them  very  interesting  as  representing  ^he 
Court,  surroundings,  life,  campaigns,  and  battles  of  Napo- 
leon III.;,  the  idol  of  France  at  the  time  they  were  exe- 
cuted. 

Returning  from  these  rooms  to  the  Galerie  de  Sculpture., 
and,  turning  at  the  end,  we  reach  the  landing,  where  we 
find  a  staircase  which  leads  us  up  to  the  second  floor,  the 
Attique  du  Nord,  panelled  with  part  of  the  vast  Versailles 
collection  of  portraits,  chiefly  copies  and  poor  as  works  of 


34  DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 

art,  but  including  a  few  of  great  interest,  especially  here,  in 
the  palace  where  so  many  of  the  originals  lived  and  died. 
Turning  to  the  left  by  the  door  opposite  the  stairs,  we 
enter — 

Salle  I.,  where  we  may  notice  with  interest  as  originals  : 

3052.   Charles  VII.     XVI  c. 
3116.   Fran9ois  t.     XVI  c. 
311S,   Claude  de  France. 
3121.   Renee  de  France. 

3198.    Don   Carlos,    Infant    of    Spain.     Attributed   to    .SVr  A. 
More. 

Salle  II. — 

3282.   Porbus :  H#nri  IV.  as  a  child,  at  the  time  when  lie  had 

to  be  flogged  to  make  him  go  to  mass. 
3347.   Mh-evelt :  Maurice  de  Nassau. 

Salle  III— 

3367.    Sitnon  Votiet :  Louis  XIII. 

It  used  to  be  said  of  Louis  XIII.,  "  II  ne  dit  pas  tout  ce  qu'il 
pense  ;  il  ne  fait  pas  tout  ce  qu'il  veut  ;  il  ne  veut  pas  tout  ce 
qu'il  pent." 

3391.    Philippe  de  Champaigne  :  Cardinal  de  Richelieu. 

Richelieu  described  his  own  character  to  the  Marquis  de  la 
Vieuville  :  "  Je  n'ose  rien  entreprendre  sans  y  avoir  bien  pense, 
mais  quand  une  fois  j'ai  pris  ma  resolution,  je  vais  a  mon  but,  je 
renverse  tout,  je  fauche  tout,  et  ensuite  je  couvre  tout  de  ma 
soutane  rouge." 

Salle  IV.— 

3443.  Testeliii :  Chancellor  Seguier. 

3441.  Anne  of  Austria. 

3488.  Lebriin  :  Vicomte  de  Turenne,  Marechal  de  France. 

3445.  Testelin  :  Louis  XIV.  as  a  boy. 

3445.  Henrietta  Maria,  Queen  of  England. 

"  Her  vivacity  deprived  all  her  actions  of  that  gravity  that  is 
necessary  to  persons  of  her  rank,  and  her  soul  was  too  much  car- 
ried away  by  her  feelings." — Mme  de  Motteville. 


ATTIQUE   DU  NORD  3^ 

Salle  v.— 

3624.  Mignard :  Anne  Marie  de  Bourbon,  Mile  de  Blois, 
afterwards  Princess  de  Conti,  as  a  child. 

"  27  Dec.  1679.  All  the  court  rejoiced  at  the  marriage  of  M. 
the  Prince  de  Conti  and  Mile  de  Blois.  The}^  were  like  lovers  in 
romances  ;  the  king  made  great  sport  of  their  affection.  He 
spoke  tenderly  to  her,  and  assured  her  that  he  loved  her  so  much 
that  he  did  not  wish  to  lose  her  ;  the  child  w"s  so  moved  and  de- 
lighted that  she  wept.  The  king  said  he  could  see  well  enough 
what  aversion  she  had  for  the  husband  whom  he  had  chosen  for 
her.  She  redoubled  her  tears,  and  her  little  heart  could  not  con- 
tain her  joy.  The  king  told  the  little  scene,  and  it  gave  pleasure 
to  every  one.  As  for  M.  de  Conti,  he  was  transported,  and  did  not 
know  what  he  was  saying  or  doing  ;  he  walked  over  everj^body 
who  came  in  his  way,  in  his  haste  to  see  Mile  de  Blois.  Mme 
Colbert  did  not  wish  him  to  see  her  till  evening,  but  he  broke 
through  the  guards,  and  flung  himself  at  her  feet  and  kissed  her 
hand.  She  embraced  him  without  more  ado,  and  began  to  weep 
again.  This  good  little  princess  is  so  tender  and  so  pretty  that 
one  would  like  to  eat  her." — Mme  de  S^vigne'. 

3052.  Schmitz  {after  Afignard)  :  Mme  de  la  Valliere  and  her 
two  children. 

"  In  the  midst  of  her  highest  fortune,  she  had  herself  painted 
by  Mignard,  with  her  two  children,  and  holding  in  her  hand  a 
pipe  from  which  hung  a  soap-bubble  with  the  legend  :  '  Sic  transit 
gloria  imindi,''  " — Hoefer. 

4304.  Fran9oise  Marie  de  Bourbon,  Duchesse  d'Orleans,  and 
Louis  Alexandre  de  Bourbon,  Comte  de  Toulouse  : 
children  of  Louis  XIV.  and  Mme  de  Montespan. 

3553.   Louis  de  France,  "  Le  Grand  Dauphin." 

"He  is  the  most  incomprehensible  man  in  the  world  ;  he  is 
not  stupid,  )'et  always  acts  as  if  he  were.  This  arises  from  his 
insensibility  and  his  indifference." — Correspondance  de  Madame, 
1699. 

"  He  is  the  most  difficult  man  in  the  world  to  entertain,  for 
he  never  sa)'s  a  word." — Mine  de  Maintenon. 

3500.   Louis  XIV. 

3545.    Carlo  Alaratta  :  Lenotre. 

"Illustrious  for  having  been  the  first  to  design  the  beautiful 


36  jDA  YS  near  PARIS 

gardens  that  adorn   France,   Lenotre  had  such  probity,  upright- 
ness and  integrity,  that  all  loved  and  esteemed  him." — St.  Si/non. 

Salle  VI.— 

3629.    Mignard  :    Philippe    de    France,    grandson    of    Louis 
XIV.,  afterwards  Philippe  V.  of  Spain,  as  a  child. 

3578.  Hyacinthe  Rigaiid :  Mignard. 

"  L'elegante  portraitiste  des  dames  de  la  cour." — Henri  Mar- 
tin. 

3586.   Detroy :   Jules    Hardouin-Mansard,    Surintendant     des 
batiments  du  roi. 

"  He  was  a  large  man,  well  made,  with  a  pleasing  face,  sprung 
from  the  dregs  of  the  people,  but  with  much  natural  talent,  all 
directed  to  please  and  attract,  without,  however,  ever  getting  clear 
of  the  roughness  acquired  in  his  early  condition." — St.  Simon. 

3579.  Gilles  Alloa  :  Coysevox. 

Salle  VII.— 

3640.   Rigatid :  Jean  Baptiste  Keller. 
3566.    Vivien  :  Fenelon. 

"With  the  most  deep-seated  probity,  the  most  ardent  and 
most  sincere  hunger  and  thirst  for  truth,  the  most  scrupulous 
purity,  the  presence  of  God  always  felt  in  every  deed  or  situation 
of  his  daily  life,  to  whom  he  referred  with  a  holy  jealousy  the 
most  important  and  the  most  trivial  actions." — St.  Simon. 

"  He  had  merely  skin  over  his  bones  and  his  eyes  deep-set  in 
his  head,  but  he  talked  very  pleasantly  ;  he  was  polished  and  even 
gay.  He  laughed  readily  and  liked  to  talk  without  reserve." — 
Correspondance  de  Madame. 

Salle  VIII— 

3 640.   Riga ud  :    Keller. 

3673.   Rigaud :  Louise  Antoinc  dc   Pardaillan,  Due  d'Antin, 
legitimate  son  of  Mme  de  Montespan. 

"  Beautiful  as  the  day  when  young,  he  preserved  great  re- 
mains of  it  to  the  end  of  his  life,  but  it  was  a  masculine  beauty, 
and  a  face  full  of  intelligence.  No  one  had  more  charm,  mem- 
ory, light,  or  knowledge  of  men  and  of  each  man.  Coarse  by 
nature,  gentle  and  polished  by  judgment,  he  sacrificed  everj^thing 
to  ambition  and  riches." — St.  Simon, 


ATTIQUE   DU  NORD  37 

3637.   Mignard :  Fran9oise  d'Aubigne,  Mmc  de  Maintenoti. 

"Always  under  constraint,  at  first  to  gain  a  living,  then  to 
rise,  then  to  reign,  she  was  never  happy,  and  deserved  neither  the 
exaggerated  satires  nor  praises  of  which  she  was  the  object." — 
Duclos. 

"  L'envie  de  faire  un  nom  etait  ma  passion,"  she  wrote  to  her 
pupils  at  St.  Cyr. 

"  Mignard,  when  painting  Mme  de  Maintenon  as  Sainte  Fran- 
goise  of  Rome,  asked  the  king,  smiling,  if  in  order  to  adorn  the 
picture,  he  might  dress  her  in  an  ermine  mantle.  '  Yes,"  said  the 
king,  '  Sainte  Frangoise  deserves  one.'  This  portrait  is  the  most 
beautiful  one  of  her  in  existence All  the  courtiers  ad- 
mired it ;  the  attribute  of  royalty  did  not  escape  notice." — De  la 
Beaumelle,  "  Me'moires  de  Mme  de  Maintenon." 

"  Madame.  I  have  seen  the  most  beautiful  thing  that  can  be 
imagined,  a  portrait  of  Mme  de  Maintenon  by  Mignard  ;  she  is 
dressed  as  Sainte  Frangoise  of  Rome  ;  Mignard  has  embellished 
her,  but  it  is  without  insipidity,  without  red  or  white,  without  the 
air  of  youth,  without  all  her  perfections,  and  he  presents  to  us  a 
face  bevond  all  that  can  be  described,  animated  eyes,  perfect 
grace,  no  gewgaws,  and  with  all  this  no  portrait  comes  before 
it." — M/ue  de  Coiilanges  a  Mme  de  Se'vigne,  Oct.,  1694. 

3652.  Rigaud :  Dangcau  (Philippe  et  Courcillon,  Marquis  dc 
Dangeau). 

"  A  kind  of  man  whose  metal  had  lost  its  temper.  All  his 
capacity  went  no  further  than  conducting  himself  well,  injuring 
nobody,  multiplying  the  breezes  of  flattery  that  surrounded  him, 
and  in  acquiring,  preserving,  and  enjoying  a  kind  of  consider- 
ation."—  St.  Simon. 

3661.  Marie  Louise  d'Orleans,  Duchesse  de  Berry,  eldest 
daughter  of  Philippe,  Due  d'Orleans,  and  great- 
niece  of  Louis  XIV.,  the  most  depraved  of  all 
French  princesses — undutiful  as  a  daughter,  un- 
faithful as  a  wife,  and  most  protiigate  as  a  widow 
during  the  regency  of  her  father. 

"  Born  with  superior  intelligence,  a  striking  face  which  pleas- 
antly arrested  attention,  she  spoke  with  singular  grace,  and  a  nat- 
ural eloquence  peculiar  to  her  which  flowed  in  an  easy  stream. 
What  might  she  not  have  done  with  these  talents,  if  the  vices  of 
her  heart,  spirit,  and  soul,  and  a  most  violent  disposition,  had  not 


38 


DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 


turned  so  many  fair  gifts  into  the  most  dangerous  poison?  Im- 
measurable pride  and  the  most  continual  treachery  were,  in  her 
eyes,  virtues  on  which  she  piqued  herself,  and  irreligion,  which  she 
believed  was  an  ornament  to  her  wit,  placed  the  climax  on  all 
the  rest." — St.  Simon. 

"She  is  not  at  all  pretty.  She  is  thick  and  short,  long 
arms  and  short  hips,  she  walks  badly,  and  displays  a  want  of 
grace  in  all  she  does  ;  she  makes  horrible  grimaces,  has  a  crying 
face,  marked  with  the  small-pox,  red  eyes — their  color  is  clear  blue 
— and  a  reddish  face.  But  her  neck,  hands,  and  arms  are  per- 
fectly beautiful.  With  all  this,  her  husband  and  her  father  im- 
agine that  Helen  was  never  so  beautiful  as  the  Duchesse  de 
Berry." — Correspondance  de  Madame. 

"  The  question  of  her  funeral  oration  caused  such  embarrass- 
ment, that  at  the  end  it  was  resolved  not  to  have  one." — Me'moires 
de  ]\Iadame. 

2084.  Rigaiid :  Elizabeth  Charlotte  de  Baviere,  Duchesse 
d'Orleans — Madame,  called  by  her  intimates  "  Lise- 
Lotte."  The  Princess  Palatine,  second  wife  of  Phi- 
lippe d'Orleans,  only  brother  of  Louis  XIV.  She  is 
celebrated  in  all  the  memoirs  of  the  time,  and  by  her 
own  published  correspondence. 

"This  princess  was  dressed  up  as  a  kind  of  Amazon,  with  a 
man's  cloth  coat  laced  at  the  seams  ;  she  had  a  petticoat  to  match, 
a  three-tailed  wig  like  that  of  H.  M.,  and  a  hat  exactly  like  the 
king's,  which  she  did  not  take  ofT  or  lift  while  she  was  paying 
her  respects  to  us,  which,  however,  she  performed  with  sufficient 
ease  and  ceremony.  It  is  right  to  add  that  her  vulgar  Royal 
Highness  had  her  feet  in  boots  and  a  whip  in  her  hand.  She  was 
badly  formed,  badly  turned,  badly  disposed  for  everything  and 
against  everybody.  She  had  a  face  like  a  russet  apple,  short, 
broad,  high  colored,  not  much  nose,  black  eyes,  animated,  without 
any  trace  of  wit — the  kind  of  face  we  see  everywhere." — Souvenirs 
de  la  Marquise  de  Creqtci. 

"  The  rough,  original,  satiric  Princess  of  Orleans,  from  whom 
the  modern  house  of  Orleans  was  to  spring." — Henri  Martin. 

3695.   Rigaud :  Louis  XV.  as  a  child. 
3682.  Antoine  Coypel :  His  own  Portrait. 
3680.    Rigaud :  His  own  Portrait. 

"  Rigaud,   who   made  himself  illustrious  by  leaving  to  pos- 


ATTIQUE  DU  NORD  3^ 

terity  the  living  images  of  most  of  the  great  men  of  the  age." — 
Henri  Martin. 

3681.   Largillieres :  His  own  Portrait, 

3677.  Mi^nard :  La  Comtesse  de  Feuquieres,  daughter  of  the 
artist. 

"  The  marriage  of  a  brother  of  Feuquieres,  with  the  daugh- 
ter of  the  celebrated  Mignard,  the  first  painter  of  his  time, 
who  was  dead,  was  a  love  match.  Bloin,  the  first  valet  de 
chambre  of  the  king,  had  been  keeping  her,  to  the  knowledge  of 
everybody,  and  induced  the  king  to  sign  the  contract  of  mar- 
riage."— St.  SifHon. 

3701.  Santerre :  Philippe,  Due  d'Orleans,  Regent  du  Roy- 
aume. 

"  He  is  like  the  child  in  the  story  to  whose  baptism  all  the 
fairies  were  invited  ;  one  wished  him  a  good  figure,  another  elo- 
quence, another  that  he  should  learn  all  the  arts  ;  a  fourth,  all  the 
exercises — that  is  fencing,  riding,  dancing;  a  fifth,  that  he  become 
skilled  in  the  art  of  war;  a  sixth,  that  he  be  more  courageous 
than  any  one.  The  seventh  fairy  had  been  overlooked  in  the  in- 
vitations. 'I  cannot  take  from  the  child,  '  she  said,  'what  my 
sisters  have  bestowed,  but  while  life  lasts,  I  shall  be  contrary,  so 
that  all  the  favors  they  have  accorded  will  amount  to  nothing. 
Therefore,  I  will  give  him  such  a  bearing  that  he  shall  seem  lame 
and  hump-backed  ;  I  will  make  his  beard  grow  so  black  and 
thick,  from  one  day  to  another,  and  make  him  grimace  like  a  day 
dreamer  that  he  will  be  disfigured  ;  I  will  plunge  him  into  such 
ennui  that  he  will  detest  all  the  arts  he  cultivates — music,  paint- 
ing, and  drawing  ;  I  will  inspire  him  with  a  taste  for  solitude,  and 
a  horror  of  the  society  of  honest  people." — Correspondance  de 
Madame  {his  mothet). 

3725.  Santerre  :  Louise  Adelaide  d'Orleans,  Mile  de  Chartres, 
abbesse  de  Chelles,  daughter  of  the  Regent. 

3711.  Philippe  V.  of  Spain  (Philippe  de  France),  grandson  of 
Louis  XIV. 

Galerie. — 

L.  3769.      Vanloo  et  Parrocel :  Louis  XV.  on  horseback,  as  a 

boy. 
3754.  J.  B.  Vanloo  :  Marie  Leczinska. 
3750.  Rigaud :  Louis  XV. 


40  J^A  YS  NEAR   PARIS 

3789,      Tocqiie :    Louis,    Dauphin — "  Monseigneur,"    son    of 
Louis  XIV. 

"  He  was  perfection  towards  the  king  ;  never  had  a  son  such 
respect,  such  obedience,  such  filial  love  for  his  father.  This  must 
be  conceded  to  him  ;  it  is  the  chief  praise  that  can  be  given  him." 
—  Correspondaiice  de  Madame. 

3751.  Vanloo  :  Louis  XV. 

"Louis  XV.  had  a  most  imposing  presence.  His  eyes  re- 
mained fixed  on  )'Ou  all  the  time  he  was  talking  ;  and  in  spite  of 
the  beauty  of  his  features,  he  inspired  a  kind  of  dread." — Mjue 
Campan. 

3765.   Cardinal  de  Fleury,  Prime  Minister  under  Louis  XV. 
3741.   Nattier :  Anne  Louise  Benedicite  de  Bourbon-Conde, 
Duchesse  du  Maine. 

"  She  had  courage  in  excess  ;  was  enterprising,  audacious, 
furious,  knowing  only  the  present  passion,  and  postponing  every- 
thing to  it." — St.  Shnon. 

3752.  Cozette :  Louis  XV. — a  portrait  in  late  life. 

"His  manners  in  no  way  resembled  his  habits  and  tastes; 
his  bearing  was  easy  and  noble,  he  carried  his  head  with  much 
dignity  ;  his  look,  without  being  severe,  was  imposing." — M7nc 
Campaii. 

3755.    Tocque  :  Marie  Leczinska. 

"  The  noblest  model  of  all  the  religious  and  social  virtues." 
— Mine  Campan. 

"  There  could  not  be  a  better  woman,  nor  one  with  less  tact, 
than  Marie  Leczinska ;  serious  and  austere,  rigidly  and  often 
inopportunely  devout,  she  did  everything  that  could  alienate  a 
husband  younger  than  herself." — Henri  Martin. 

3791.    C.  Natoire :  Louis  Dauphin,  son  of  Louis  XV. 

"  His  virtues  are  known  by  every  Frenchmen." —  Mine  Cam- 
pan. 

3805.   Nattier :  Madame  Victoire,  daughter  of  Louis  XV.,  as 

a  girl. 
3795.   L.   Tocque :  Marie  Anne  Christine  Victoire  de  Baviere 

(La  Dauphine),  daughter-in  law  of  Louis  XIV.,  and 

mother  of  the  Dues  de  Bourgogne  and  Berry,  and  of 

Philippe  V.  of  Spain. 


ATTIQUE   DU  NORD  4 1 

"The  king  was  extremely  impatient  to  learn  what  she  was 
like.  He  sent  Sanquin,  an  honest  man  incapable  of  flattery. 
'Sire,' he  said,  'saving  the  first  look,  you  will  be  pleased  with 
her.'  The  remark  was  an  apt  one,  for  there  is  something  in  her 
nose  and  brow  which  is  too  long  in  proportion  to  the  rest,  which 
at  first  produces  a  bad  effect.  But  she  has  such  grace,  such  beau- 
tiful arms,  such  beautiful  hands,  such  a  beautiful  figure,  such 
a  beautiful  neck,  such  beautiful  teeth,  such  beautiful  hair,  so 
much  wit  and  goodness,  caressing  without  being  insipid,  familiar 
with  dignity  ;  in  fine,  such  charming  manners  that  the  first  view 
must  be  pardoned." — Mme  de  Se'vignc. 

"  I  saw  Madame  la  Dauphine,  whose  want  of  beauty  is  not  at 
all  shocking  or  disagreeable  ;  her  face  does  not  become  her,  but  her 
wit  does  perfectly.  She  neither  says  nor  does  anything  without 
showing  that  she  has  a  good  deal.  She  has  lively,  piercing  eyes, 
she  understands  and  comprehends  everything  readily  ;  she  is 
natural,  and  no  more  embarrassed  nor  astonished  than  if  she  had 
been  borne  in  the  Louvre.  She  exhibits  the  highest  gratitude 
towards  the  king,  but  without  baseness  ;  not  as  being  below  what 
she  is  to-day,  but  as  having  been  chosen  and  distinguished  from 
all  Europe.  She  has  a  very  noble  air,  and  much  dignity  and 
goodness  ;  she  loves  verses,  music,  and  conversation  ;  she  is 
often  four  or  five  hours  quite  alone  in  her  chamber,  and  is  sur- 
prised at  the  exertions  made  to  amuse  her.  She  has  shut  the  door 
on  all  mockery  and  malice." — Lettre  de  Mtfie  de  Se'vigne',  Mars, 
1680. 

"The  good,  honest,  and  dear  Dauphine." — Correspoiidance  de 
Madame,  Duchesse  d' OrUans. 

3885.    Tocque' :  Gresset. 

3902.  Madame  Clotilde,  Queen  of  Sardinia,  sister  of  Louis 
XVI. 

"  This  princess  was  a  child  so  enormously  large  that  people 
gave  her  the  nickname  of  '  big  madame.'  " — Mnie  Campan. 

3993.   Nivelon  :  Louis  Dauphin. 

3819.  N'attier :  La  Duchesse  d'Orleans. 

3810.   Drouais  :  Madame  Sophie,  daughter  of  Louis  XV. 

"  Madame  Sophie,  who  united  to  the  most  unpleasant  coun- 
tenance the  most  mediocre  intellect,  was  an  entirely  passive  per- 
sonage."— Me7noires  de  Besenval. 

3813.  Nattier:  Madame  Louise,  daughter  of  Louis  XV.,  be- 
fore she  took  the  veil. 


42  DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 

"  Her  soul  was  lofty  and  she  loved  great  things.  She  could 
do  only  one  splendid  action,  that  of  quitting  a  palace  for  a  cell, 
rich  vestments  for  a  sackcloth  gown.    She  did  it." — Mme  Campan. 

3796.   Marie  Josephe  de  Saxe,  la  Dauphine,  mother  of  Louis 

XVI. 
3806.   N'attier :  Madame  Victoire. 

"Madame  Victoire,  good,  gentle,  affable,  lived  in  the  most 
charming  simplicity  in  a  circle  that  cherished  her  ;  she  was  adored 
by  her  household." — Mine  Campan. 

3872.   Raphael  Mengs  :  Charles  III. 

3791.  Natolre:  Louis  de  France,  Dauphin. 

3890.    Callet :  Louis  XVL 

"His  features  were  those  of  his  race,  rendered  somewhat 
heavier  by  the  German  blood  of  his  mother,  a  princess  of  Saxony. 
Beautiful  blue  eyes,  widely  open,  more  limpid  than  sparkling, 
a  round  brow  sloping  backward,  a  Roman  nose  in  which  the  soft 
heavy  nostrils  modified  a  little  the  energy  of  the  acquiline  form,  a 
smiling  mouth  with  a  gracious  expression,  thick  lips  well  formed, 
a  fine  skin,  a  rich,  rosy  complexion,  although  somewhat  flaccid,  a 
short  figure,  a  plump  body,  a  timid  attitude,  and  an  uncertain 
gait." — Lamartine,  "Hist,  des  Girondins."' 

"  Serenity,  sweetness  and  good-will  are  depicted  on  the  king's 
face.  We  feel  that  no  evil  thought  can  approach  him." — Karam- 
sine,  1790. 

3895.   Mme  Lehriui  :  Marie  Antoinette. 

"The  queen  is  still  beautiful  and  majestic.  Marie  Antoinette 
is  born  to  be  a  queen.  Her  bearing,  ber  look,  her  smile,  all 
indicate  a  superior  being.  It  cannot  be  doubted  but  that  her 
heart  was  deeply  wounded.  Well,  she  knew  how  to  hide  her 
grief,  and  not  a  cloud  obscured  the  brilliancy  of  her  beautiful 
eyes. " — Karamsine,  1 790. 

3802.   Heinslus  :  Madame  Adelaide,  daughter  of  Louis  XV., 

in  late  life. 
3783.   M»ie  Guiard :  Louise  Elizabeth  de  France,   "Madame 

rinfante,"  eldest  daughter  of  Louis  XV. 
3907.   Mme   Lebncn :    Marie    Therese    de    France,    Madame 

Royale,  and  Louis  Joseph  Xavier,  the  first  Dauphin, 

son  of  Louis  XVI. 


ATTIQUE  DU  NORD  43 

Returning  by  the  other  side — 

3912.   Aline   Lebrun :    Louise   Marie   Adelaide    de    Bourbon, 

Duchesse  d'Orleans  (Mile  de  Penthievre). 
3865.   Drouais  :  "  Monsieur,"  afterwards  Louis  XVIIL 

"This  heartless  bel esprit,  who  will  one  day  be  Louis  XVIIL, 
a  young  man  without  youth,  a  cold,  false  heart,  a  sceptic  who 
had  imbibed  from  the  age  only  negations." — Henri  Martin. 

3899.  Vanloo  :  Charles  Philippe  de  France,  Comte  d'Artois, 
afterwards  Charles  X. 

"Obstinate,  noisy,  profligate,  with  an  open  heart  and  easy 
disposition,  he  had  the  defects  of  youth  without  striking  qualities 
or  a  decided  character." — Henri  Martin. 

3S09.   Nattier:  Madame  Sophie. 

3802.  N'attier :  Mme  Adelaide  (called  "  Loque "  by  her 
father,  Louis  XV.). 

"Madame  Adelaide  had  for  an  instant  a  charming  face,  but 
never  did  beauty  disappear  as  rapidly  as  hers.  She  was  imperious 
and  impulsive  ;  abrupt  manners,  a  harsh  voice,  and  a  curt  pro- 
nunciation rendered  her  more  than  imposing." — Mine  Cavipan. 

3901.   Drouais :  Le  Comte  d'Artois,  afterwards  Charles  X. 

"  Monseigneur  d'Artois  pulls  the  mask  from  a  fair  imper- 
tinent ;  fights  a  duel  inconsequence — almost  drawing  blood.  He 
has  breeches  of  a  kind  new  in  this  world — a  fabulous  kind  ; 
'four  tall  lackeys,'  says  Mercier,  as  if  he  had  seen  it,  'hold  him 
up  in  the  air,  that  he  may  fall  into  the  garment  without  vestige  of 
wrinkle  ;  from  which  rigorous  encasement  the  same  four,  in  the 
same  way,  and  with  more  effort,  have  to  deliver  him  at  night.'  " — 
Carlyle. 

3704.  Nivelon:  La  Dauphine — Marie  Josephe  de  Saxe,  mother 
of  Louis  XVI. 

3822.   Fete  given  at  the  He  d'Adam  by  the  Prince  de  Conti. 

3887.   Stag  taken  before  the  Chateau  of  L'lle  d'Adam. 

3825.  Supper  "  chez  le  Prince  de  Conti  "  at  the  Temple,  with 
portraits  of  the  Princesse  de  Beauvau,  Comtesse  de 
Boufflers,  Comtesse  d'Egmont,  Marechale  de  Luxem- 
bourg, Prince  d'Henin,  President  Renault,  Pont  de 
Vesle.  Trudaine.  The  5'oung  Mozart,  aged  eight,  is 
at  the  piano,  accompanied  by  the  celebrated  Geliotte. 

3801.  Nattier:  Madame  Adelaide. 


44  DA  YS  NEA^   PARIS 

"  Madame  Adelaide  was  entirely  deficient  in  that  goodness 
which  alone  makes  the  great  beloved.  She  carried  too  far  the 
idea  of  the  prerogatives  of  rank." — Muie  Campan. 

3776.    Toe q lie  :  Abel  Francois   Poisson,  Marquis  de  Marigny, 

brother  of  Mme  de  Pompadour. 
3S50,    Carlo   Vanloo  :  The  painter  and  his  family. 
3775.  Boucher :  Antoinette  Poisson,  Mme  de  Pompadour. 

"At  a  ball  at  the  Hotel  de  Ville,  a  pretty  mask,  after  having 
flirted  a  long  time  with  his  Majesty,  let  fall  her  handkerchief  as 
she  departed.  Louis  XV.  picked  it  up  and  threw  it  to  her.  '  The 
handkerchief  is  throzun,'  the  courtiers  cried.  They  spoke  truly." — 
Touchaj'd-Lafosse. 

3830.  Rigaud :  Fran9ois   Rene  de  Voyer  de   Paulm)' — D'Ar- 

genson. 
3785.   Drouais :   Bouchardon,  the  sculptor. 
3743.  Aved :  J.  B.  Rousseau. 

"Jean  Baptiste  Rousseau  had  the  face  of  Silenus  and  the 
figure  of  a  vine-cutter." — Marquise  de  Cre'qiii. 

Returning  down  the  gallery,  one  enters — 

Salle  VIIL  — 

3958.    Ge'rai'd:  Madame  Adelaide. 

3960.  Mme  Guiard :  Madame  Victoire. 

3962.  Elizabeth   Philippine  Marie  Helene  de  France,    "  Ma- 

dame Elizabeth." 

"The  pious  Elizabeth,  victim  of  her  respect  and  tender 
attachment  to  the  king,  her  brother,  whose  lofty  virtues  deserve 
the  celestial  crown." — Mine  Campan. 

3963.  Carteaux :  Louis  XVL  on  horseback. 

3970.  Drouais:  "  Monsieur,"  afterwards  Louis  XVTIL 
3974.   Drouais:  Le  Comte  d'Artois,  afterwards  Charles  X. 

Redescending  the  staircase,  we  reach,  on  the  second 
floor,  La  Galerie  des  Peintures.  The  order  in  which  the 
palace  must  be  visited  has  here  the  inconvenience  of  re- 
versing the  chronological  order  of  the  pictures. 

Salle  I. — 

1810.    Court:  The   Due   d'Orleans  signs  the   proclamation  of 
La  Lieutenance-generale. 


ATTIQUE   DU  NORD  ^c 

1814,  1815.  Hcim  :  The  Chamber  presents  to  the  Due  d'Or- 
leans  the  Act  which  calls  him  to  the  throne. 

1822.  Biard:  King  Louis  Philippe  in  the  midst  of  the  Na- 
tional Guard. 

Salle  II. — 

1791.  //.    Verne t :  Review  by  Charles  X. 

1792.  Gerard:  Coronation  of  Charles  X. 

1793.  Gros :  A  review  in  camp  by  Charles  X. 

Salle  III— 

1778.    Gros :  Louis  XVIIL  leaving  the  Tuileries. 
17S7.   Paul Dela7-oche :  The  taking  of  Trocadero. 

Salle  IV.— 

Copies  of  H.  Vernet. 

Salle  v.— 

1754.  Rouget:  Marriage  of  Napoleon  L  and  Marie  Louise. 

Salle  VI  — 

1745.    Goutherot :  Napoleon  L  wounded  before  Ratisbon. 
1749.   Bellajigd :  Battle  of  Wagram. 

Salle  VII— 

1731.  Bergeret :  Alexander  presents  the  Calmucks  to  Napo- 

leon L 

1732.  Taunay :  Entry  of  the  Imperial  Guard  to  Paris. 
1735-    Taunay  :  Passage  of  the  Sierra-Guadarrama. 
1739.   He^'sent :  Taking  of  Landshut. 

Salle  VIII  — 

1716.  Menageot :  Marriage  of  Prince  Eugene  de  Be  auharnais. 
1721.  Ponce  Camiis  :  Napoleon  L  at  the  tomb  of  Frederick  IL 
1724.  Mtdard :  Napoleon  receives  the  Persian  Ambassador. 

Salle  IX.—  ' 

1696.    Taunay  :  Descent  from  the  Mont  St.  Bernard. 
1709.    Tatinay  :  The  French  army  entering  Munich. 

Salle  X. — 

1684.   Hennequin  :  The  Battle  of  the  Pyramids. 

Here  we  end  our  visit  to    the    northern    wing.     The 
Salon  d'Hercule  is  the  communication  between  this  wing 


46 


DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 


and  the  central  and  principal  part  of  the  palace.  This  is 
the  part  of  chief  interest,  and  may  be  visited  without  the 
rest.  Those  who  wish  to  do  this  will  ascend  one  of  the 
little  staircases  by  the  side  of  the  chapel,  from  the  vesti- 
bule, on  the  ground  floor,  and,  on  reaching  the  vestibule 
on  the  first  floor,  will  turn  left. 

The  Saloji  d'' Herciile  is  so  named  from  the  picture  of 
the  '^  Apotheosis  of  Hercules  "  on  its  ceiling,  by  Francois 
le  Moyfie,  who  chose  the  subject  in  remote  flattery  of  his 
patron,  Hercule  de  Fleury,  the  Cardinal  Minister.  The 
"  Passage  of  the  Rhine  "  is  a  copy  of  Van  der  Meulen  : 
Louis  XIV.  did  not  cross  the  river,  and  is  represented  in 
the  foreground. 

"  Satirique  flatteur,  toi  qui  pris  tant  de  peine 
Pour  chanter  que  Louis  n'a  pas  passe  le  Rhin." 

Voltaire  {from  Prior). 

This  salon  was  formed  from  the  upper  part  of  the  old 
chapel,  where  the  many  marriages  of  Louis  XIV. 's  chil- 
dren took  place,  beginning  with  the  love-marriage  of  his 
lovely  littlt  daughter  (by  Mme  de  la  Valliere),  Mile  de 
Blois,  with  the  Prince  de  Conti. 

"  The  dress  of  the  Prince  de  Conti  was  priceless  ;  it  was  one 
mass  of  enibroidery  of  very  large  diamonds  that  followed  the 
compartments  of  black  velvet  on  a  straw-colored  ground.  It  is 
said  that  the  straw  color  was  not  a  success,  and  that  Mme  de 
Langeron,  who  is  the  soul  of  all  the  decorations  of  the  hotel  of 
Conde,  was  made  ill  by  it.  In  fact,  it  was  one  of  those  things 
for  which  one  cannot  be  consoled.  The  duke,  the  duchess,  and 
Mme  de  Bourbon  had  three  dresses  adorned  with  different  jewels 
for  the  three  days.  But  I  was  forgetting  the  best ;  that  is,  that  the 
prince's  sword  was  set  with  diamonds. 

"  La  famosa  spada 
Al  cui  valore  ogni  vittoria  e  certa. 

The  lining  of  the  mantle  of  the  Prince  de  Conti  was  black  satin. 


SALLE   DE   DLANE  47 

picked  out  with  diamonds.     The  princess  was  romantically  beau- 
tiful, apparelled  and  happy. 

"  Qu'il  est  doux  de  trouver  dans  un  amant  qu'on  aime 
Un  epoux  que  Ton  doit  aimer  !  " 

Mme  de  S^vigni. 

Here  the  Due  de  Bourgogne,  grandson  of  Louis  XIV., 
was  married  to  Marie  Adelaide  de  Savoie,  long  the  darling 
of  the  king  and  Court.  Here  Philippe  d'Orleans,  Due  de 
Chartres  (afterwards  the  Regent  d'Orleans),  was  married 
to  Frangoise  Marie  de  Bourbon,  daughter  of  Louis  XIV. 
and  Mme  de  Montespan ;  and  here  her  brother,  Louis- 
Auguste,  Due  du  Maine,  was  married  to  Louise-Benedicite 
de  Bourbon  Conde.  Here,  also,  in  1685,  Louis  XIV.  was 
himself  married  to  Mme  de  Maintenon  by  Harly,  Arch- 
bishop of  Paris,  and  the  Pere  Lachaise,  confessor  of  the 
king;  Bontems,  first  valet  de  chambre,  and  the  Marquis 
de  Montchevreuil  being  the  witnesses. 

The  small  room  called  the  Salle  d' Abondance  leads 
(left,  after  passing  an  anteroom)  to  the  Salle  des  Etats- 
generaux  (with  a  statue  of  Bailly),  whence  the  Petits  Ap- 
partements  de  Louis  XV. — noticed  later — are  sometimes 
reached. 

The  door  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  Salle  d'Abon- 
dance  from  which  we  entered,  leads  to  the  Salle  de  Venus, 
marked  by  a  group  of  the  Three  Graces.  Next  comes  the 
Salle  de  Diane,  with  fine  portraits  of  Marie  Thdrese,  attrib- 
uted to  Beaubrun,  and  Louis  XIV.,  by  Rigaud,  perhaps 
the  most  characteristic  of  the  many  portraits  of  the  king. 

"  He  talked  to  perfection  ;  if  the  conversation  was  merry,  he 
joined  in  with  pleasantr}' ;  if  he  condescended  to  tell  a  story,  he 
did  so  with  infinite  grace  and  with  such  a  noble  and  refined  style  as 
I  have  seen  only  in  him." — Mfue  de  Cayhis,  "  Souz'eni?-s." 

"Never  was  there  a  man  so  naturally  polished,  nor  of  a 
politeness  so  measured  and  graduated,  nor  who  distinguished 


48  DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 

better  age,  merit,  and  rank  in  his  replies  and  his  manner.  His 
salutations,  more  or  less  marked,  but  always  slight,  had  incom- 
parable grace  and  majest}-.  He  was  admirable  in  his  different 
ways  of  receiving  salutes  at  the  head  of  the  lines  of  the  army  and 
at  reviews.  In  the  case  of  women  nothing  could  surpass  it ;  he 
never  passed  before  any  one  in  a  bonnet  without  taking  off  his 
hat,  even  to  chamber-maids,  whom  he  knew  to  be  such.  He  never, 
by  any  chance,  said  anything  disobliging  to  any  one.  Before  the 
world  nothing  was  out  of  place  or  left  to  hazard,  but,  down  to  his 
slightest  gesture,  his  walk,  his  bearing,  and  his  whole  counte- 
nance were  all  measured,  decorous,  noble,  grand,  majestic,  and 
always  very  natural." — St.  Simoii,  xii.  461. 

From  the  Salle  de  Diane  we  enter  the  Salon  de  Mars, 
which  was  used  as  a  ball-room  under  Louis  XIV.,  when  it 
was  decorated  by  some  of  the  fine  works  of  Paul  Veronese 
and  Titian,  which  are  now  in  the  Louvre.  Over  the 
chimney  is  the  young  Louis  XIV.  crowned  by  Victory. 
The  great  pictures  represent  the  coronation  of  Louis  XIV. 
and  his  interview  with  Philippe  V.  at  the  He  des  Faisans. 
Near  the  entrance  is  a  portrait  of  Anne  Genevieve  de 
Bourbon^  Duchesse  de  Longueville,  the  heroine  of  the 
Fronde. 

"  Mme  de  Longueville  had  naturally  a  fiery  spirit,  but  she 
had  also  finesse  and  tact.  Her  capacity  was  not  assisted  by  her 
idleness.  She  had  a  languor  in  her  manner  which  was  more 
effective  than  the  brilliancy  of  those  even  who  were  more  beauti- 
ful. She  had  a  languor,  too,  in  her  spirit,  which  had  its  charms 
because  it  awoke  in  bright  and  surprising  flashes." — Cardinal  de 
Retz,  ''  M^moires," 

"  It  was  impossible  to  see  her  without  loving  her  and  wishing 
to  please  her.  She  had  the  air  of  making  a  public  profession  of 
bel  esprit.'' — Mme  de  Motteville. 

"  So  crazy  for  popular  favor  as  to  go  and  lie  in  at  the  Hotel 
de  Ville  ;  so  disillusioned  as  to  end  in  the  penitence  of  the 
cloister  a  life  which  love  and  ambition  had  agitated  in  turn." — 
Vat  out. 

Near  the  opposite  door  are  (2054)  the  Due  de  Longue- 
ville and  (2053)  the  Prince  de  Conde.     Le  Salon  de  Mer- 


SALOX  D'APOLLON  40 

cure  was  the  "  chambre  de  parade,"  which  served  for  the 
*' jeu  du  roi  "  on  the  "jours  d'appartement.'  It  contains 
good  portraits  of  Louis  XIII.  and  Anne  of  Austria,  as  well 
as  of  Louis  XIV.  and  Marie  The'rese,  of  whom  the  king 
said  at  her  death  (July  30,  1683),  "  Depuis  vingt-trois  ans, 
que  nous  sommes  ensemble,  voila  le  premier  chagrin 
qu'elle  m'ait  donne'."  Here  also  are  portraits  of  (2068) 
La  Grande  Mademoiselle,  and  of  (2069)  Marguerite  Louise 
d'Orle'ans,  wife  of  Cosimo  de'  Medici,  Grand  Duke  of 
Tuscany.  It  was  in  this  room,  turned  into  a  chapelle 
ardente^  that  the  coffin  of  Louis  XIV.  lay  in  state  for  eight 
days. 

Le  Salon  d^ApoIlon  was  formerly  the  throne-room. 
The  three  rings  which  supported  the  canopy  are  still  in 
their  places.  Here  Louis  XIV.  received  the  submission 
of  the  Doge  of  Venice,  who  answered  to  the  courtiers  who 
asked  him  what  he  found  most  remarkable  at  Versailles : 
"  C'est  de  m'y  voir." 

Here  also  Louis  XIV.  held  his  last  public  audience,  in 

1715- 

Amongst  the  pictures  are — 

2078.   Entry  of  Louis  XIV,   and  Marie  Therese  into  Douai, 

1667. 
3503.   Henriette  d'Angleterre  (Madame),  youngest  daughter  of 

Charles  I.,  and  Philippe  de  France,  Due  d'Orleans. 

"The  princess  of  England,  the  king's  sister-in-law,  brought 
to  the  court  the  charms  of  refined  and  animated  conversational 
powers,  supported  by  the  reading  of  good  books,  and  by  rare  and 
delicate  taste.  She  inspired  fresh  emulation,  and  introduced  at 
the  court  a  politeness  and  a  grace  of  which  the  rest  of  Europe 
had  scarcely  an  idea." — Voltaii-e. 

"  Her  regular  beauty  surprised  all  those  who  had  seen  in  her, 
as  a  child,  only  ugliness  and  grace.  If  her  figure  had  been  per- 
fect, she  would  have  been  nature's  master-piece.  Her  conversa- 
tion had  a  thousand  charms  ;  her  mind  was  enriched  by  the  read- 


50  BA  YS  NEAR  PARIS 

ing  of  the  best  books  ;  her  taste,  although  delicate  and  natural, 
was  sure  and  fine  ;  her  temper  equable,  charming,  and  such  as  she 
required  to  rule  over  the  French.  Although  she  touched  the  first 
throne  of  the  world,  it  was  clear,  from  her  very  perfections,  that 
she  had  been  brought  up  in  the  bosom  of  misfortune  ;  with  all 
this  she  had  the  desire  and  ability  to  please," — De  la  Beaumelle, 
"  Mhnoires  de  Mine  de  Maintoiony 

"  Madame,  whom  whole  ages  could  scarcely  replace  for 
beauty,  youth  and  dancing." — Mine  de  Sdvigne. 

3504.   Anne  Marie  Louise  d'Orleans,   Mile  de  Montpensier, 
as  Bellona,  and  Gaston,  Due  d'Orleans. 

"  I  am  tall,  neither  fat  nor  thin,  with  a  handsome,  easy  figure. 
I  have  a  good  face  ;  the  bust  well  made  ;  my  arms  and  hands,  not 
beautiful,  but  a  beautiful  skin.  My  leg  is  straight,  and  the  foot 
well  shaped  ;  my  hair  light,  of  a  beautiful  light  brown  ;  my  counte- 
nance is  long,  but  well  shaped  ;  the  nose  large  and  aquiline  ;  the 
mouth  neither  large  nor  small,  but  cut  in  an  agreeable  manner; 
the  lips  red  ;  the  teeth  not  beautiful,  but  not  horrible  either  ;  my 
eyes  are  blue,  neither  large  nor  small,  but  bright,  soft  and  proud, 
like  my  face.  I  have  a  lofty  air  without  arrogance." — Portrait  de 
Mile  de  Montpensier  fait  par  elle-menie,  Nov.,  1657. 

As  for  Gaston  d'Orleans — 

"  He  looked  like  a  king's  son,  half  starved." — Mnie  de  Motte- 
ville. 

2085.   Henriette  d'Angleterre,  Duchesse  d'Orleans. 

2080.   Henriette  Marie  de  France,  Queen  of  England.      "La 

reine  malheureuse." 
2089.   Marie  Louise  d'Orleans,  Queen  of  Spain. 

Le  Salon  de  la  Guerre  is  a  magnificent  room.  The 
ceiling  is  adorned  with  pictures  by  Lebrun^  celebrating  the 
victories  of  Louis  XIV. 

"The  magnificent  historical  paintings  which  ornament  the 
grand  gallery  of  Versailles  and  the  two  saloons,  had  no  small 
share  in  irritating  all  Europe  against  the  king,  and  uniting  it 
against  his  person  rather  than  against  his  kingdom." — St.  Simon, 
'^  Me  moires,'"  1695. 

(Over  the  chimney-piece)   Coysevox  :  A  relief  of  Louis  XIV. 
on  horseback,  trampling  upon  his  enemies. 


GALERIE  DES   G LACES  ei 

La  Grande  Galerie  des  Glaces  was  built  by  Louis  XIV. 
in  the  place  of  a  terrace  between  two  pavilions.  The 
larger  pictures  are  by  Lebrun.  the  sculptured  children  on 
the  cornice  by  Coysevox ;  the  inscriptions  are  attributed  to 
Boileau  and  Racine.  All  the  symbolical  paintings  exalt 
Louis  XIV.  as  a  god. 

"Nothing  can  be  compared  to  him  at  reviews  or  fetes,  and 
wherever  an  air  of  gallantry  was  required  by  the  presence  of  ladies, 
he  was  always  majestic,  yet  sometimes  with  gaiety  ;  before  the 
world  there  was  nothing  out  of  place  or  left  to  hazard  ;  down  to 
the  least  gesture,  his  walk,  his  bearing,  his  countenance,  all  were 
measured,  decorous,  noble,  grand,  majestic,  and  always  natural, 
Avhich  the  unique,  incomparable  advantages  of  his  whole  appear- 
ance greatly  facilitated.  In  serious  affairs,  audiences  of  ambas- 
sadors, and  ceremonies,  no  man  was  more  imposing,  and  it  was 
necessary  to  be  accustomed  to  see  him,  if,  in  addressing  him,  one 
did  not  wish  to  break  down.  His  replies  on  these  occasions  were 
alwa}  s  short,  to  the  point,  seldom  without  some  obliging  or  even 
flattering  phrase,  if  the  discourse  merited  it.  The  respect  which 
his  presence  at  any  place  inspired,  imposed  silence,  and  even  a 
sort  of  dread." — St.  Simon. 

This  gallery,  which  has  a  noble  view  down  the  gardens 
of  the  palace,  was  the  scene  of  the  great  fetes  of  the  court. 

"  The  king  was  not  only  sensible  of  the  continued  presence  of 
distinguished  persons,  but  also  of  those  of  lower  rank.  He 
looked  to  right  and  left  at  his  lever  and  his  coucker,  at  his  meals,  as 
he  passed  through  the  rooms  or  the  gardens  of  Versailles,  where 
only  members  of  the  court  had  liberty  to  follow  him.  He  saw  and 
remarked  everyone  ;  no  one  escaped  him,  not  Cv-en  those  who  did 
not  expect  to  be  seen.  He  mentally  noted  the  absence  of  those 
who  were  regular  at  court  ;  that  of  those  who  came  more  or  less 
often,  and  the  general  or  particular  causes  of  their  absence  ;  he 
combined  these  remarks,  and  never  omitted  the  smallest  oppor- 
tunity of  acting  with  respect  to  them.  It  was  a  demerit  to  all  dis- 
tinguished personages  not  to  make  the  ordinary  sojourn  at  the 
court ;  and  to  others,  to  come  there  rarely,  while  it  Avas  certain 
disgrace  to  come  never,  or  almost  never.  When  there  was  a 
question  of  anything  for  their  benefit,  'I  do  not  know  him,'  he 


52 


DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 


would  reply  haughtily.  Of  those  who  rarely  presented  them- 
selves, he  said,  '  He  is  a  man  whom  I  never  see.'  These  resolu- 
tions were  irrevocable." — St.  Simon,  "' M^/noires." 

Here  also  the  memoirs  of  the  time  bring  many  strange 
scenes  before  us  from  the  family  life  of  the  royal  family,  as 
on  the  announcement  of  the  (compulsory)  marriage  of  the 
Due  de  Chartres  (afterwards  the  Regent  d'Orleans)  with  a 
natural  daughter  of  Louis  XIV.  by  Mme  de  Montespan. 

"  Madame  was  walking  in  the  gallery  with  Chateauthiers,  her 
favorite,  and  worthy  to  be  so  ;  she  "walked  with  great  strides, 
handkerchief  in  hand,  weeping  without  restraint,  talking  pretty 
loud,  gesticulating,  and  representing  admirably  Ceres  after  the 
rape  of  Proserpine,  furiously  seeking  for  her  daughter,  and  de- 
rT\anding  her  from  Jupiter.  Out  of  respect,  all  left  her  the  field, 
and  only  passed  to  enter  the  apartment.  Monseigneur  and  Mon- 
sieur had  returned  to  lansquenet.  The  former  appeared  to  me  as 
usual.  Never  was  anything  so  covered  with  shame  as  the  face  of 
Monsieur,  nor  so  disconcerted  as  his  whole  figure  ;  this  condition 
asted  for  more  than  a  month.  M.,  his  son,  seemed  in  despair, 
and  his  intended  in  extreme  embarrassment  and  sadness.  Young 
as  she  was,  marvellous  as  was  the  marriage,  she  saw  and  felt  the 
whole  scene,  and  apprehended  all  the  consequences.  Next  day 
all  the  court  visited  Monsieur,  ISIadame,  and  the  Duke  de  Char- 
tres without  saying  a  word  ;  they  were  content  to  bow,  and  all 
passed  in  perfect  silence.  They  then  went  to  attend  as  usual  the 
rising  of  the  council,  in  the  gallery,  through  which  the  king  went 
to  mass.  Madame  went  there.  M.,  her  son,  approached,  as  he 
did  every  day,  to  kiss  her  hand.  Madame  at  that  instant  gave 
him  a  sounding  buffet,  that  was  heard  several  yards  oft',  and 
which,  given  in  the  presence  of  all  the  court,  covered  the  poor 
prince  with  confut  ion,  and  filled  the  countless  spectators,  of  whom 
I  was  one,  with  prodigious  astonishment." — St.  Simon,  ^^Ale- 
moires,''  1692. 

"The  Parisian,  on  Whitsunday,  runs  to  Versailles  to  see  the 
princes,  the  procession  of  blue  ribbons,  then  the  park,  and  then 
the  menagerie.  The  grand  apartments  are  opened  to  him  ;  the 
smaller  ones,  which  are  richer  and  more  curious,  are  closed.  At 
noon  he  presents  himself  in  the  gallery  to  see  the  king  going  to 
mass,  and  the  queen,  and  Monsieur  and  Madame,  and  Monseig- 
neur the  Comte   d'Artois,  and  Madame   the  Comtesse  d'Artois. 


LA    SALLE  DU   CON  SELL 


53 


Then  they  say  to  each  other  :  '  Have  yoii  seen  the  king  ? —  Yes  ;  he 
laughed, —  True,  he  laughed. — He  seemed  happy, —  Good  reason  why .''  " 
—  Tableau  de  Pails,  17S2.  • 

It  was  in  this  gallery  that  King  William  of  Prussia 
caused  himself  to  be  proclaimed  German  Emperor  in  Jan- 
uary, 187 1. 

From  the  Grande  Galerie  des  Glaces,  before  advancing 
to  the  other  galleries  of  the  Musee,  we  should  turn  by  first 
door  on  the  left  to  La  Salle  du  Conseil,  which  was  divided 
under  Louis  XIV.,  the  further  part  being  the  Cabinet 
des  Perruqiies,  where  the  king  changed  his  wig  several 
times  a  day.  In  the  nearer  part,  called  Cabinet  du  Roi, 
Louis  XIV.  transacted  business  with  his  ministers.  In 
this  room  is  preserved  the  clock  of  Louis  XIV.,  which  was 
stopped  at  the  moment  of  his  death,  and  has  never  been 
set  in  motion  since. 

The  room  was  arranged  as  it  is  now  under  Louis  XV., 
under  whom  Mme  du  Barry  loved  to  display  here  her  irre- 
pressible audacity. 

"  She  was  a  Roxalana,  gay  and  familiar,  without  respect  for 
the  dignity  of  the  sovereign.  Mme  du  Barry  carried  forgetful- 
ness  of  the  proprieties  so  far  as  to  wish  one  day  to  be  present  at 
the  council  of  state  ;  the  king  was  weak  enough  to  consent  ;  she 
remained  there  ridiculously  perched  on  the  arm  of  his  chair,  and 
played  all  the  little  childish  monkey  tricks  which  could  please 
old  sultans. 

"  On  another  occasion  she  pulled  out  of  the  king's  hands  a 
packet  of  letters  still  sealed  up.  .  .  .  The  king  tried  to  seize  it ; 
she  resisted  ;  made  him  chase  her  two  or  three  times  around  the 
table  in  the  middle  of  the  council-room,  and  then,  as  she  passed 
the  fire-place,  flung  them  in,  where  they  were  burned.  The  king 
was  furious  ;  he  seized  his  audacious  mistress  by  the  arms  and 
turned  her  out  without  speaking.  Mme  du  Barry  fancied  herself 
disgraced  ;  she  went  to  her  rooms,  and  remained  alone  for  two 
hours,  a  pre}^  to  the  greatest  disquiet.  The  king  came  to  look 
for  her  ;  the  countess,  in  tears,  flung  herself  at  his  feet,  and  he 
pardoned  her." — ALine  Catnpan,  "■  Me  moires." 


54 


DA  VS  NEAR   PARIS 


It  was  in  the  embrasure  of  the  first  window  of  this 
same  room  that  the  panic-stricken  M.  de  Breze'  announced 
to  Louis  XVI.  the  terrible  answer  of  Mirabeau,  when  the 
deputies  were  summoned  to  separate  :  "  Nous  sommes  ici 
par  la  volonte  du  peuple,  et  nous  n'en  sortirons  que  par  la 
force  des  baionnettes." 


From  the  Salle  du  Conseil  w'e  may  turn  aside  to  visit 
the  very  interesting  historic  rooms  called  Les  Petits  Ap- 
parte77ients  de  Louis  XV.  (sometimes  entered  opposite  the 
Salle  des  Etats-ge'ne'raux,  when  the  order  is  reversed), 
comprising  the — 

Chambre  a  coucher  de  Louis  XV.  This  was  the  billiard- 
room  of  Louis  XIV.  It  was  here  that  the  game-loving 
king  accorded  his  friendship  over  the  billiard-table  to 
Chamillart,  who  rose  to  be  minister. 

"The  king,  who  amused  himself  often  with  billiards,  the 
taste  for  which  lasted  a  long  time,  used,  nearly  every  evening,  to 
make  parties  with  M,  de  Vendome  and  M.  le  Grand,  and  some- 
times the  Marshal  de  Villeroy  or  the  Duke  de  Grammont.  They 
heard  that  Chamillart  was  a  good  player,  and  wished  to  try  him 
in  Paris.  They  were  so  pleased  that  they  spoke  of  him  to  the 
king,  and  praised  him  so,  that  he  ordered  M.  le  Grand  to  bring 
him  back  the  first  time  he  went  to  Paris.  He  came,  and  the  king 
found  that  they  had  not  said  too  much.  M.  de  Vendome  and  M. 
le  Grand  extended  more  friendship  and  protection  to  him  than 
the  other  two  did,  with  the  result  that  he  was  admitted  once  for 
all  into  the  king's  party,  where  he  was  the  strongest  player  of  all. 
He  behaved  so  modestly  that  he  pleased  the  king  and  the  cour- 
tiers by  whom  he  was  protected  in  place  of  being  laughed  at,  as 
happens  to  an  unknown  new-comer  from  the  town." — St.  Simon, 
1699. 

This  was  the  future  minister  for  whom  was  composed 
the  epitaph — 


APPARTEMENTS  DE   LOVIS  XV.  rr 

"  Ci-git  Ic  fameux  Chamillard, 
De  son  roi  le  protonotaire, 
Qui  fut  un  heros  au  billard, 
Un  zero  dans  le  ministere." 

It  was  in  this  room  that  an  absurd  conflict  of  senti- 
mentality and  common-sense  took  place  after  the  attempt 
of  Damiens  to  murder  the  king,  when  Louis  XV.  took  to 
his  bed,  received  the  last  sacraments,  and  gave  his  last 
directions  as  a  dying  man. 

"  M.  de  Landsniath,  an  equerry  and  master  of  the  hounds, 
was  an  old  soldier  who  had  given  many  proofs  of  courage  ;  noth- 
ing could  reduce  his  excessive  frankness  to  the  habits  and  con- 
venances of  the  court.  The  king  was  very  fond  of  him.  M.  de 
Landsmath  had  a  thundering  voice.  He  entered  the  room  of 
Louis  XV.,  the  day  of  the  horrible  attempt  by  Damiens,  a  few 
minutes  after,  and  found  the  Dauphine  and  the  king's  daughters 
beside  the  king  ;  these  princesses,  dissolved  in  tears,  surrounded 
his  Majesty's  bed.  'Turn  out  these  weepers,  Sire,'  said  the  old 
equerry,  '  I  wish  to  speak  with  you  alone.'  The  king  signed  to 
the  princesses  to  retire.  'Come,'  said  Landsmath,  'your  wound 
is  nothing  ;  you  had  plent)'-  of  under-clothing  and  vests.'  Then 
displaying  his  breast,  '  See,' he  said,  pointing  to  four  or  five  large 
scars,  '  these  are  worth  reckoning  ;  it  is  thirty  years  since  I  re- 
ceived these  wounds.  Come,  cough  as  hard  as  you  can.'  The 
king  coughed.  '  It  is  nothing,'  said  Landsmath  ;  '  laugh  at  it  ;  in 
four  days  we  will  hunt  a  stag.'  '  But  if  the  blade  were  poisoned?' 
said  the  king.  '  An  old  story,  all  that,'  he  replied  ;  'if  the  thing 
were  possible,  your  under-clothing  and  vests  would  have  cleaned 
the  blade  from  any  dangerous  drugs.'  The  king  was  calmed  and 
passed  a  vQ,xy  good  night." — Mme  Campan. 

But  it  was  also  in  this  room  that  Louis  XV.  really 
died.  May  lo,  1774,  of  malignant  small-pox,  which  fifty  per- 
sons caught  from  merely  crossing  the  neighboring  gal- 
lery :  though  his  three  daughters  nursed  him  with  fearless 
devotion. 

"  The  king  was  at  the  last  extremity  ;  besides  the  small-pox,  he 
had  spotted  fever,  and  there  was  danger  in  entering  the  room.  ls\. 
de  Latoriere  died  after  having  opened  the  door  to  see  him  for  two 


56  £>AVS  NEAR  PARIS 

minutes.  The  ph)^sicians  themselves  took  all  sorts  of  precaution 
to  preserve  themselves  from  the  contagion  of  the  terrible  disease, 
and  Mesdames,  who  had  never  had  the  small-pox,  who  were  no 
longer  young  and  naturally  of  feeble  health,  were  all  three  in  his 
chamber,  seated  near  his  bed,  and  beneath  the  curtains  ;  they 
passed  day  and  night  there.  Ever)'^  one  made  strong  remon- 
strances to  them  on  the  subject,  and  told  them  that  it  was  more 
than  risking  their  lives,  it  was  sacrificing  them.  Nothing  could 
deter  them  from  fulfilling  this  pious  duty." — Sottvenirs  de  Fdicie. 

The  pictures  include — 

The  Coronation  of  Louis  XV.  ;  Louis  XV.  as  a  child,  by 
Rigaud ;  and  the  six  daughters  of  Louis  XV.,  by  Nattier. 

The  Salon  des  Petidules  was  the  council-chamber  of 
Louis  XV.  On  the  floor  is  a  meridian  line  said  to  have 
been  traced  by  Louis  XVI.  From  a  little  window  in  this 
room,  Louis  XV.,  unseen  himself,  was  fond  of  watching 
the  courtyard  and  its  arrivals.  Hence  also,  as  the  fickle 
king  saw  the  funeral  train  of  his  once  beloved  Mme  de 
Pompadour  leaving  Versailles,  he  exclaimed,  "  La  Mar- 
quise a  mauvais  temps  pour  son  voyage  ! " 

La  Salle  d' Or  et  d\4rgent  contained  a  collection  of 
precious  stones  under  Louis  XV.  The  valuables  in  this 
room  were  concealed  at  the  Revolution  behind  a  portrait 
of  Mme  de  Maintenon.  La  Salle  des  Buffets  was  also  the 
Cabinet  de  Travail  de  Louis  XV.  et  XVI.  Adjoining  it 
is  shown  the  oratory  of  Louis  XIV.  Le  Cabinet  des 
Medailles  was  previously  part  of  a  little  gallery :  it  be- 
longed to  the  apartment  of  Mme  de  Montespan. 

La  Bihliotheque  de  Louis  XVL.  Here  the  iron  safe  of 
Louis  XVL,  and  the  //z^/'^r^/^^^which  it  contained,  are  said 
to  have  been  found  on  the  denunciation  of  Gamain.  An 
autograph  report  of  Mansart  on  some  of  his  new  buildings, 
with  the  notes  of  Louis  XIV.  on  the  margin,  is  preserved 
here.     La  Salle  des  Porcelaines,  which  has  a  fine  tapestry 


LA    SALLE   DES  PORCELALVES 


57 


portrait   of   Louis  XV.,  was  the  apartment  of  the  king's 
favorite  daughter,  Madame  Adelaide. 

"  Louis  XV.  came  down  every  morning,  by  a  secret  stair,  to 
the  rooms  of  Madame  Adelaide.  Often  he  brought  and  took 
with  him  some  coffee  which  he  had  made  himself.  Madame 
Adelaide  rang  the  bell  to  give  notice  to  Madame  Victoire  of  the 
king's  visit  ;  Madame  Victoire,  as  she  rose  to  go  to  her  sister, 
rang  for  Madame  Sophie,  who,  in  turn,  rang  for  Madame  Louise. 
The  apartments  of  the  princesses  were  very  large.  Madame 
Louise  lived  in  the  one  farthest  away.  This  youngest  daughter 
of  the  king  was  deformed  and  small  ;  to  join  the  daily  gathering, 
the  poor  princess  crossed,  running  with  all  her  might,  a  great 
number  of  rooms,  and,  in  spite  of  her  hurry,  had  often  only  time 
to  embrace  her  father,  who  was  going  to  hunt." — Af77ie  Campan. 

The  Salle  des  Porcelaines  leads  to  the  Escalier  des 
Ambassadeurs. 

By  a  little  window,  lighted  from  an  inner  court,  we 
reach  the  Salle  a  Manger,  whence  we  enter  the  Cabinet  des 
Chasses,  looking  upon  the  little  court  called  Cour  des  Cerfs, 
which  is  surrounded  by  a  balcony  whither  the  royal  family 
used  to  come  to  inspect  the  spoils  of  the  chase.  The  iron 
grille  on  the  left  of  the  balcony  communicated  with  the 
alcove  of  the  chamber  of  Louis  XV.,  which  Mme  du 
Barry  entered  by  this  means.  The  gilt  door  on  the  right 
of  the  entrance  communicates  with  a  staircase  which  led 
up  to  the  apartments  of  Madame  du  Barry — small  rooms 
lighted  by  round-headed  windows.  On  the  second  story 
of  the  Cour  des  Cerfs,  Louis  XV.  had  some  small  private 
rooms,  which  Louis  XVI.  afterwards  used  as  a  workshop, 
where  he  amused  himself  as  a  locksmith,  and  where,  with 
the  help  of  the  workman  Gamain,  he  constructed,  in  the 
beginning  of  1792,  his  famous  armoire  de  fer.  Beyond 
this  is  the  Salle  des  Etats-gene'raux  (see  p.  47). 


58  DA  YS  .YEAR   PARIS 

From  the  Salle  du  Conseil  we  enter  La  Chanibre  a  cou- 
cher  lie  Louis  XIV. 

The  original  bed  and  furniture  of  this  room  gave  twelve 
years'  work  to  Simon  Delobel,  tapissier,  valet  de  chambre 
du  roi.  The  present  bed  was  made  under  Louis  Philippe. 
The  counterpane,  originally  adorned  with  the  "Triumph 
of  Venus,"  was  exchanged  in  the  latter  years  of  Louis 
XIV.  for  the  "  Sacrifice  of  Abraham  "  and  the  "  Sacrifice 
of  Iphigenia,"  the  work  of  the  young  ladies  of  St.  Cyr. 
This  quilt,  found  in  two  parts,  in  Germany  and  Italy,  was 
recovered  by  Lonis  Philippe.  No  one  was  allowed  inside 
th?  balustrade  in  which  the  bed  is  placed — ia  riiciie — with- 
out being  especially  summoned  by  the  king.  The  pictures 
of  St.  John  by  Raffaelle,  and  David  by  Domenichino, 
which  are  now  in  the  Louvre,  were  originally  on  either  side 
of  the  bed.  The  portrait  of  Anne  of  Austria,  mother  of 
Louis  XIV.,  hung  here  in  the  king's  time.  The  other 
family  portraits  have  been  brought  hither  since. 

"  At  eight  o'clock  the  first  valet  de  chanibie  on  duty,  who 
had  slept  in  the  king's  room,  and  had  dressed,  awoke  him.  The 
first  physician,  the  first  surgeon,  and  his  nurse,  as  long  as  she 
lived,  entered  at  tiie  same  time.  She  kissed  him,  the  others 
rubbed  him,  and  often  changed  his  shirt.  At  a  quarter  past,  the 
grand  chamberlain  was  summoned,  and  in  his  absence  the  first 
gentleman  of  the  chamber  for  the  year,  and  with  him  those  who 
had  the  grandes  entrees.  One  of  them  opened  the  curtain  which 
was  closed,  and  presented  some  holy  water  from  the  basin  at  the 
bed-head.  These  gentlemen  were  there  only  for  a  moment,  and 
this  was  the  time  to  speak  to  the  king  if  they  had  anything  to 
say  to  him  or  ask  of  him,  and  then  the  others  departed.  When 
they  had  nothing  special  to  say,  they  only  remained  a  few^  min- 
utes. The  one  who  had  opened  the  curtains  and  presented  the 
holy  water,  presented  the  book  of  the  olTSce  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
and  then  both  passed  into  the  council  chamber.  The  office  was 
quickly  said  ;  the  king  called  and  they  returned.  The  same 
officer  gave  him  his  dressing-gown,  and  then  those  who  had  the 
second  entries  or  business  entered  ;  a  few  moments  afterwards, 


CHAM B RE   DE  LOUIS  XIV. 


59 


the  throng  waiting  in  the  chamber  entered,  first  the  most  dis- 
tinguished, then  everybody,  and  they  found  the  king  pulling  on 
his  shoes,  for  he  did  nearly  everything  himself  with  address  and 
grace.  He  could  be  seen  shaving  every  other  day,  and  he  wore 
a  little  short  wig,  without  ever,  at  any  time,  even  in  bed  when  he 
took  medicine,  appearing  otherwise  in  public.  He  often  talked 
of  hunting,  and  sometimes  a  few  words  to  some  one.  There 
was  no  toilet  table  within  his  reach  ;  a  mirror  was  held  before  him. 
"  When  he  was  dressed,  he  said  his  prayers  by  the  side  of  his 
bed,  while  all  the  clergy  present  knelt,  the  cardinals  without 
hassocks  ;  all  the  laymen  remained  standing,  and  the  captain  of 
the  guard  came  to  the  balustrade  during  the  prayer,  after  which 
the  king  went  to  his  cabinet." — St.  Simon. 

No  one  who  considers   this  oppressive  etiquette    will 
wonder   that,  on  hearing  of  it,   Frederick   the  Great  said 
that,  if  he  was  king  of  France,  he   would   name  another 
king  to  go  through  all  that  in  his  place. 
The  king  used  to  dine  in  his  chamber. 

"  The  dinner  was  always  an  petit  convert,  that  is,  alone  in  his 
chamber,  at  a  square  table  opposite  the  middle  window.  It  was 
more  or  less  abundant,  for  he  ordered  in  the  morning  either  petit 
cotivert  or  tres  petit  convert.  The  latter,  however,  had  always 
plenty  of  dishes  and  three  courses  without  desert  When  the 
table  had  been  brought  in,  the  chief  courtiers  entered,  then  all 
who  were  known,  and  the  first  gentleman  of  the  chamber  went  to 
give  notice  to  the  king.  He  served  him  if  the  grand  chamber- 
lain was  not  there. 

"  I  have  seen,  but  very  rarely,  Monseigneur  and  his  sons  at 
the  petit  convert,  standing,  without  the  king  ever  offering  them  a 
seat.  I  have  constantly  seen  the  princes  of  the  blood  and  the 
cardinals  in  line.  I  have  seen  pretty  often  Monsieur,  either  com- 
ing from  Saint  Cloud  to  see  the  king  or  leaving  the  council,  the 
only  one  who  entered.  He  handed  the  napkin,  and  remained 
standing.  A  little  while  afterwards  the  king,  seeing  he  was  not 
going  away,  asked  him  if  he  would  not  be  seated  ;  he  bowed,  and 
the  king  ordered  a  seat  to  be  brought.  A  tabouret,  or  stool,  was 
placed  behind  him.  A  few  moments  afterwards  the  king  would 
say,  '  My  brother,  be  seated.'  He  bowed,  and  sat  down  till  the 
end  of  dinner,  when  he  presented  the  napkin.  At  other  times 
when  he  came  from  Saint  Cloud,  the  king,  as  he  entered,  asked 


6o  DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 

if  he  would  not  dine.  If  lie  refused,  he  departed  at  once,  with- 
out any  reference  being  made  to  a  seat  ;  if  he  accepted,  the 
king  ordered  a  cover  for  him.  The  table  was  square  ;  he  placed 
himself  at  one  end,  his  back  towards  the  cabinet.  Then  the 
grand  chamberlain,  if  he  served,  or  the  first  gentleman  of  the 
chamber,  gave  and  removed  the  glasses  and  plates  for  Monsieur, 
just  as  he  did  for  the  king,  but  Monsieur  received  his  service 
with  marked  politeness.  When  he  was  at  the  king's  dinner  he 
maintained  and  enlivened  the  conversation.  Then,  although  at 
table,  he  handed  the  king  his  napkin  both  when  he  sat  down  and 
when  he  left,  and  restored  it  to  the  grand  chamberlain.  The 
king  ordinarily  spoke  little  at  dinner,  only  a  few  words  here  and 
there,  unless  there  were  some  of  those  nobles  with  whom  he  was 
familiar,  and  then  he  spoke  a  little  more.  So  was  it  at  his  levee 
also." — St.  Simon,  1715. 

"The  king,  when  he  left  the  table,  remained  for  less  than  a 
quarter  of  an  hour,  his  back  against  the  balustrade  of  the  cham- 
ber. He  found  there  a  circle  of  all  the  ladies  who  had  been  at 
his  supper,  and  who  came  there  to  wait  a  little  before  he  left  the 
table,  except  the  ladies  who  had  been  seated,  who  only  left  the 
table  after  him,  and  who,  as  belonging  to  the  suites  of  the  princes 
and  princesses  that  had  supped  with  him,  came  one  by  one  to 
make  their  reverences,  and  formed  a  circle  standing  where  the 
other  ladies  had  left  a  wide  space  for  them  ;  the  men  stood  be- 
hind. The  king  amused  himself  by  noticing  the  dresses,  faces, 
and  graceful  bows,  said  a  few  words  to  the  princes  and  princesses 
who  had  supped  with  him,  and  who  formed  a  circle  near  him  on 
two  sides  ;  then  bowed  to  the  ladies  right  and  left,  repeating  this 
once  or  twice  as  he  went  out,  with  incomparable  grace  and  maj- 
esty. He  spoke  sometimes,  but  rarely,  as  he  passed  and  entered 
into  his  cabinet,  where  he  stopped  to  give  orders,  and  then  went 
to  the  second  cabinet." — Sf.  Sinion,  1710. 

It  was  this   room  that  witnessed  the  closing  scenes  of 

Louis  XIV. 's  life:— 

"He  said  to  Mme  de  Maintenon  that  he  had  always  heard 
that  it  was  difficult  to  make  up  one's  mind  to  die  ;  but  that  he, 
now  on  the  verge  of  this  moment  so  dreaded  by  mankind,  did 
not  find  the  resolution  was  so  difficult  to  take.  She  replied  it 
was  very  diflScult  when  one  was  attached  to  the  creature,  had 
hatred  in  the  heart,  or  reparations  to  make.  '  Ah  !  '  rejoined  the 
king,  '  as  for  reparations,  I,  as  a  private  person,  owe  none  to  any- 


CHAMBRE   DE   LOUIS  XIV.  6 1 

body  ;  but  for  those  I  owe  to  the  kingdom,  I  trust  in  God's  mercy,' 
The  following  night  was  much  disturbed.  He  was  seen  joining 
his  hands  at  every  moment,  and  was  heard  saying  the  prayers  he 
was  accustomed  to  make  in  health,  and  to  beat  his  breast  at  the 
Confiteor, 

"On  Wednesday,  August  28,  he  paid  Mme  de  Maintenon  a 
compliment  which  did  not  please  her,  and  to  which  she  did  not 
reply  a  word.  He  said  to  her  that  what  consoled  him  in  quitting 
her  was  the  hope  that  at  her  age  they  would  soon  be  reunited. 
At  seven  in  the  mornirig  he  summoned  Father  de  Tellier,  and  as 
he  spoke  to  him  of  God,  he  saw,  in  the  mirror,  two  pages  of  his 
chamber  seated  at  the  foot  of  his  bed  and  weeping.  He  said  to 
them,  'Why  do  you  weep?  Did  \q\x  believe  that  I  was  immor- 
tal ?  For  my  part,  I  never  thought  so,  and  )'0u  ought  to  prepare 
yourselves  to  lose  me  at  my  age.' 

"On  Saturday,  August  31,  about  seven  in  the  evening,  he 
was  so  ill  that  the  prayers  for  the  dying  were  said.  The  prepara- 
tions recalled  him  to  himself  ;  he  repeated  the  prayers  in  such  a 
strong  voice  that  it  could  be  heard  above  that  of  a  great  number 
of  clerg}',  and  of  all  that  had  entered.  At  the  end  of  the  prayers 
he  recognized  the  Cardinal  de  Rohan,  and  said,  '  These  are  the 
last  mercies  of  the  Church.'  He  was  the  last  man  to  whom  he 
spoke.  He  repeated  several  times,  'Ximc  et  in  hora  viortis,'  and 
then,  '  O  my  God  !  come  to  my  aid  ;  hasten  to  help  me.'  These 
were  his  last  words.  He  was  all  night  with  consciousness,  and 
in  a  long  agony,  which  ended  on  Sunday,  September  i,  1715,  at 
a  quarter  past  eight  in  the  morning,  three  days  before  the  com- 
pletion of  his  seventy-seventh  year,  in  the  sixty-second  year  of 
his  reign. 

"  From  time  to  time,  while  he  was  at  liberty,  and  in  the  last 
days  when  he  had  banished  all  business  and  all  other  cares,  he 
was  solely  occupied  with  God,  his  salvation,  his  own  nothingness, 
so  that  occasionally  there  escaped  him  the  words,  '  IV/ieti  I  was 
king.'  Absorbed  in  advance  in  the  great  future  to  which  he  saw 
himself  so  near,  detached  from  the  world  without  regret,  humble 
without  meanness,  with  a  contempt  for  all  that  was  no  longer  for 
him,  with  a  tranquillity  and  possession  of  soul  that  consoled  the 
valets  whom  he  saw  weeping,  he  formed  a  most  touching  spec- 
tacle ;  and  what  rendered  him  admirable  was  that  he  was  entirely 
and  always  the  same  ;  a  feeling  of  his  sins  without  the  least  dread, 
confidence,  shall  I  say  entire?  in  God,  without  doubt  or  disquiet, 
but  based  on  the  mercy  and  blood  of  Jesus  Christ,  equal  resigna- 


62  DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 

tion  as  to  his  personal  condition,  and  as  to  how  long  he  would 
last,  and  regretting  that  he  did  not  suffer.  Who  would  not  admire 
a  death-bed  so  noble  and  at  the  same  time  so  Christian  ?  Who, 
however,  will  not  shudder  at  it?" — St.  Simon. 

When  a  king  of  France  died   the  palace    clock  was 

stopped  at  the  minute  of  his  death,  to  remain  motionless 

till  the  death  of  the  next  sovereign.     The  first  gentleman 

standing  in  the  balcony  above  the  Cour  de  Marbre,  cried 

three  times  :  "  Le  roi  est  mort !  "  then,  breaking  his  wand 

of  office,  and  taking  a  fresh  one  :  "  Vive  le  roi !  " 

"  Louis  XIV,  was  regretted  by  his  private  valets,  few  other 
people,  and  the  chiefs  of  the  business  of  the  Constitution.  His 
successor  was  not  of  age.  Madame  felt  for  him  only  fear  and 
courtesy.  Mme  the  Duchess  de  Berry  did  not  love  him  and  hoped 
to  reign.  M.  the  Duke  of  Orleans  could  not  be  expected  to  weep 
for  him,  and  those  who  were  not  did  not  make  it  their  business. 
Mme  de  Maintenon  was  weary  of  the  king  after  the  death  of  the 
Dauphiness  ;  she  did  not  know  what  to  do  or  how  to  amuse  him  ; 
her  restraint  was  tripled  because  he  was  much  oftener  at  her  apart- 
ment, or  in  parties  with  her.  She  had  come  to  the  end  of  her 
wishes  ;  so,  in  spite  of  her  loss  in  losing  the  king,  she  felt  herself 
freed,  and  was  capable  of  no  other  feeling. 

'  The  court  was  composed  of  two  classes  :  some  who  hoped 
to  make  a  figure,  and  to  be  introduced,  were  delighted  to  see  the 
end  of  a  reign  in  which  there  was  nothing  for  them  but  waiting  ; 
the  others,  fatigued  by  a  heav)'-  )^oke  always  crushing,  that  of  the 
ministers  being  more  so  than  that  of  the  king,  were  charmed  to 
find  themselves  in  liberty  ;  all,  in  fact,  were  delivered  from  a  con- 
tinual weariness  and  longing  for  novelty. 

"  Paris,  tired  of  a  dependence  that  had  held  down  everything, 
breathed  in  the  hope  of  some  liberty,  and  in  the  joy  of  seeing  the 
end  of  the  authority  of  so  many  persons  who  abused  it.  The 
provinces,  in  their  despair  at  their  ruin  and  annihilation,  breathed 
and  quivered  with  joy  ;  the  parliaments  and  all  judicial  bodies, 
suppressed  by  edicts  and  the  removal  of  cases,  flattered  them- 
selves, the  former  that  they  would  make  a  figure,  the  latter  that 
they  would  be  enfranchised.  The  people,  ruined,  crushed,  des- 
perate, thanked  God  with  scandalous  fervor  for  a  deliverance 
of  which  the  most  ardent  no  longer  doubted." — St,  Simon, 
''  M^moires"  171 5. 


CHAMBRE  DE   LOUIS  XIV.  63 

"  Louis  XIV.  died  without  having  had  the  pain  of  seeing 
France  descend  from  the  rank  to  which  he  had  raised  it.  He  de- 
scended to  the  tomb  tranquil  but  sad.  The  glory  of  his  reign  had 
been  won  ;  he  outlived  all  those  whom  he  had  associated  there- 
with as  if  to  seal  it.  But  he  ought  to  have  cast  an  unquiet  eye  on 
the  future  of  the  reign  which  was  to  begin  at  his  death." — Balzac, 
"  Six  Rois  de  France ^ 

La  Salle  de  V  CEil  de  Bcsu/ [opening  from  the  bedroom) 
is  so  called  from  its  oval  skylight.  This  was  the  king's 
antechamber,  in  which  the  courtiers  awaited  "  le  grand 
lever  du  roi."  In  a  strange  pictm*e  hy  iVoeref,  Louis  XIV. 
is  represented  as  Apollo,  and  all  the  rest  of  the  royal 
family  of  the  earlier  part  of  his  reign — Marie  The'rese,  La 
Grande  Mademoiselle,  Madame  (Henriette),  Monsieur, 
Anne  of  Austria,  Henrietta  Maria  (of  England),  and  the 
four  daughters  of  Monsieur — as  gods  and  goddesses. 
Mercier  describes  the  principal  occupant  of  this  chamber 
in  the  XVIIL  c.  :— 

"In  it  lives  a  broad-shouldered,  colossal  Suisse,  a  big  bird  in 
a  cage.  He  eats,  drinks,  sleeps  in  that  anteroom,  and  never 
leaves  it  ;  the  rest  of  the  palace  is  strange  to  him.  A  simple 
screen  separates  his  bed  and  his  table  from  the  potentates  of  this 
world.  Twelve  sonorous  words  adorn  his  memory,  and  constitue 
his  task  :  '  Pass  on,  gentlemen,  pass  on  ! — Gentlemen,  the  king  ! — 
Retire  ! — No  admission,  Monseigneur  !  "  And  Mcmseigneur  goes 
without  a  word.  Everj^  one  salutes  him,  no  one  contradicts  him  ; 
his  voice  chases  from  the  galler}'  a  flock  of  counts,  marquises  and 
dukes,  who  flee  before  his  words.  He  turns  back  princes  and 
princesses,  and  only  speaks  to  them  in  monosyllables.  No  in- 
ferior dignity  imposes  on  him  ;  he  opens,  for  the  master,  the  glass 
door,  and  shuts  it  ;  all  the  rest  of  the  world  is  nothing  in  his  eyes. 
When  his  voice  echoes  the  squads  of  courtiers  diminish  and 
scatter  ;  all  fix  their  looks  on  that  large  hand  that  holds  the  door- 
knob ;  motionless  or  in  action  it  has  a  surprising  effect  on  all  be- 
holders. His  vails  amount  to  five  hundred  louis  d'or,  for  no  one 
dare  offer  to  that  hand  a  metal  as  vile  as  silver." — Tableau  de 
Paris. 

The  guardian  now  stationed  in  the  Salle  de  I'CEil  de 


64  ^A  YS  NEAR   PARIS 

BcEuf  will  admit  visitors  (50  c.)  to  Lcs  Petits  Appartements 
de  Marie- Antoijieite,  previously  used  by  Marie  Leczinska. 
These  little  rooms  are  entered  by  the  corridor  by  which 
the  unfortunate  Marie  Antoinette  escaped,  October  6, 
1789.  The  Bibliotheqtie  Rouge  was  the  oratory  of  Marie 
Therese,  and  the  painting  room  of  Marie  Leczinska.  The 
Bibliotheque  Bleue  leads  to  the  Bath-7'oom  of  Marie  Lec- 
zinska. The  Salon  de  la  Rcine  has  panelling  of  the  time 
of  Marie  Antoinette. 

It  was  in  her  old  age,  as  superintendent  of  the  imperial 
college  of  Ecouen,  that  Mme  Campan  wrote  : — 

"  I  have  Hved  long  ;  fortune  placed  in  my  power  to  see  and 
judge  of  the  celebrated  women  of  different  periods.  I  was  inti- 
mate with  young  people  whose  graces  and  amiability  will  be 
known  long  after  them.  I  never,  in  any  rank,  or  at  any  age, 
found  a  woman  of  so  fascinating  a  nature  as  Marie  Antoinette  ; 
never  one  in  whom  the  dazzling  splendor  of  the  crown  left  the 
heart  so  tender,  or  who,  in  the  heaviest  misfortunes,  showed  her- 
self so  compassionate  for  the  misfortunes  of  others;  I  have 
never  seen  one  so  heroic  in  danger,  so  eloquent  when  the  occa- 
sion demanded,  or  so  frankly  gay  in  prosperity." 

V A7itichambre  die  Roi  (behind  the  CEil  de  Boeuf )  was 
used  for  dinners  when  there  was  grand  convert,  to  which 
only^/f  et  petits  fils  de  France  were  admitted. 

No.  2149.  The  Institution  of  the  Military  Order  of  St.  Louis 
is  very  interesting  as  showing  Louis  XVI.  in  his 
bedchamber.  In  1836  it  served  as  a  guide  for  the 
restoration  of  that  room. 

La  Salle  des  Gardes,  at  the  top  of  the  marble  staircase, 
was  used  for  the  household  guard  of  the  king. 

No.  2130  is  a  curious  picture  representing  the  Carrousel  or 
Tournament  given  by  Louis  XIV.  before  the  Tuile- 
ries,  June  16,  1662. 

Returning  into  the  Grande  Galerie  des  Glaces,  on  the 
left,  at  the  bottom  of  this  gallery  we  enter  the  Salon  de  la 


CHAMBRE  DE   LA    REINE 


65 


Paix,  a  pendant  to  the  Salon  de  la  Guerre  at  the  other  end 
of  the  gallery. 

Le  Salon  de  la  Paix  has  a  picture  over  the  chimney- 
piece  by  Le  Moyne,  representing  Louis  XV.  as  a  god  giving 
peace  to  Europe.  The  frescoes  of  this  room  are  of  the 
kind  so  offensive  to  foreign  powers  :  Holland  on  its  knees 
receiving  upon  its  buckler  the  arrows  which  Love  brings  it 
with  olive  branches — symbolical  of  the  provinces  which 
the  king  had  conquered  from  it,  and  the  peace  which  he 
had  given  it,  &c.  On  the  ceiling  is  France  drawn  in  a 
triumphal  car  by  turtledoves,  harnessed  by  Love — symbol- 
ical of  the  marriages  of  the  Dauphin  with  a  Bav^arian 
princess,  and  of  Mademoiselle  with  the  King  of  Spain. 
This  room  was  used  as  a  Salle  de  Jeu^  and  immense  sums 
were  lost  here.  Mme  de  Montespan  lost  400,000  pistoles 
here  in  one  night  at  biribi. 

It  was  in  this  room  that  the  king  and  Mme  de  Main- 
tenon  remained  (1712)  during  the  last  agonizing  hours 
of  the  Duchesse  de  Bourgogne,  who  had  been  the  light  of 
their  existence  \  that  they  received  the  opinions  of  the 
seven  physicians  in  office  ;  and  that  the  Queen  of  Eng- 
land (hurrying  from  St.  Germain)  vainly  tried  to  comfort 
them  in  the  greatest  sorrow  of  their  lives — "  lis  e'taient  I'un 
et  I'autre  dans  la  plus  amere  douleur." 

La  Chamhre  de  la  Reine  was  that  of  Marie  Theresa, 
wife  of  Louis  XIV.,  who  died  there.  It  was  afterwards 
inhabited  by  his  beloved  granddaughter-in-law,  the 
Duchesse  de  Bourgogne.  The  Duchesse  d'Orldans  de- 
scribes the  scene  in  this  room  after  the  news  arrived  of 
the  sudden  death  of  the  Dauphin  (son  of  Louis  XIV.)  at 
Meudon,  when  he  was  supposed  to  be  recovering  from  the 
small-pox. 

"16   April,    1711. — I    ran    to    the    Duchess   de  Bourgogne's 


de  DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 

apartments,  where  I  saw  a  benumbing  spectacle  ;  the  Duke  and 
Duchess  de  Bourgogne  were  utterly  upset,  pale  as  death  and 
speechless.  The  Duke  and  Duchess  de  Berry  were  lying  on  the 
floor,  their  elbows  on  a  lounge,  crying  so  that  )'ou  could  hear 
them  three  rooms  off;  my  son  and  Mme  d'Orleans  wept  in  silence, 
and  did  their  utmost  to  calm  the  Duke  and  Duchess  de  Berry. 
All  the  ladies  were  on  the  floor  weeping  around  the  Duchess  de 
Bourgogne.  I  accompanied  the  Duke  and  Duchess  de  Berry  to 
their  rooms  ;  they  went  to  bed,  but  continued  to  cry  no  less." — 
Corrcspondance  de  Madame. 

In  this  room  the  Duchesse  de  Bourgogne  died. 

"Many  amiable  qualities  attached  all  hearts,  Avhile  her  per- 
sonal relations  to  her  husband,  to  the  king  and  Mme  de  Main- 
tenon,  attracted  the  homage  of  the  ambitious.  She  had  labored  to 
acquire  this  position  from  the  first  moments  of  her  arrival,  and 
never  ceased,  during  life,  to  continue  so  useful  a  toil,  of  which 
she  reaped  the  fruits  without  interruption.  Gentle,  timid,  but 
adroit,  fearing  to  give  the  slightest  pain  to  anybody,  and  though 
all  lightness  and  vivacity,  very  capable  of  far  reaching  views  ; 
constraint,  even  to  annoyance,  cost  her  nothing,  though  she  felt 
all  its  weight  ;  complacency  was  natural  to  her,  flowed  from  her, 
and  was  exhibited  to  every  memlaer  of  her  court. 

"She  wished  to  please  even  the  most  useless  and  the  most 
ordinary  persons,  yd  without  seeming  to  make  an  effort  to  do  so. 
You  were  tem.pted  to  believe  her  wholly  and  solely  devoted  to 
those  with  whom  she  found  herself.  Her  gaiet}' — young,  active 
and  quick — animated  all,  and  her  nymph-like  lightness  carried 
her  everywhere  like  a  whirlwind  which  fills  several  places  at 
once  and  gives  them  movement  and  life.  She  was  the  ornament 
of  all  diversions,  the  life  and  soul  of  all  pleasure,  and  at  balls 
ravished  everybody  by  the  justness  and  perfection  of  her  dancing. 
She  spared  nothing,  not  even  her  health,  to  gain  Mme  de  Main- 
tenon,  and  through  her  the  king. 

"In  public  serious,  respectful  to  the  king,  with  a  timid 
decorum  to  Mme  de  Maintenon,  whom  she  never  addressed 
except  as  my  aunt,  thus  prettily  confounding  aflfection  and  rank. 
In  private,  prattling,  skipping,  flying  around  them,  now  perched 
upon  the  sides  of  their  arm-chairs,  now  playing  on  their  knees, 
she  clasped  them  round  the  neck,  embraced  them,  kissed  them, 
caressed  them,  rumpled  them,  tickled  them  under  the  chin,  tor- 
mented them,  rummaged  their  tables,  their  papers,  their  letters, 


CHAMBRE   DE    LA    HEI.VE 


67 


broke  the  seals  and  read  the  contents  in  spite  of  opposition,  if 
she  saw  it  was  likely  to  be  taken  in  good  part. 

"  The  king  could  not  do  without  her.  Everything  went  wrong 
when  the  parties  of  pleasure,  which  his  love  and  consideration 
for  her  insisted  on  being  frequently  formed  to  divert  her,  kept 
her  from  being  near  him.  Even  at  his  public  supper-table,  if 
she  were  away,  an  additional  cloud  of  silence  and  seriousness 
settled  around  him. 

"With  her  were  eclipsed,  joy,  pleasure,  even  amusement  and 
ever}'  kind  of  grace  ;  darkness  covered  the  face  of  the  Court, 
she  animated  it  throughout ;  she  filled  it  all  at  once,  she  occupied 
every  place  and  penetrated  everywhere.  If  the  Court  survived  her, 
it  was  only  languishing.  No  princess  was  so  regretted,  as  none 
was  more  worthy  of  being  so  ;  the  regret  could  not  pass  away, 
and  a  secret  bitterness  remained,  with  a  terrible  void  that  could 
not  be  filled." — St.  Sbnon. 

Louis  XV.  and  Philippe  V.  of  Spain  were  both  born  in 
this  room.  Here  Marie  Leczinska  died,  and  here  also 
Marie  Antoinette  gave  birth  to  Marie  Therese,  afterwards 
Duchesse  d'Angouleme,  Madame  Royale. 

"  The  royal  family,  the  princes  of  the  blood,  and  the  high 
officers  passed  the  night  in  the  rooms  adjoining  the  chamber  of 
the  queen.  Madame,  the  king's  daughter,  came  into  the  world 
before  noon  of  the  19th  of  December,  1778.  The  custom  of  allow- 
ing the  indiscriminate  entr)'  of  all  who  presented  themselves  at 
the  moment  of  the  accouchement  of  queens  was  observed  with  such 
exaggeration,  that  at  the  moment  when  the  accoucheur  Vermond 
said  aloud,  '  The  queen  is  giving  birth,'  the  floods  of  curious  peo- 
ple who  rushed  into  the  chamber  were  so  numerous,  and  so  tumult- 
uous, that  the  movement  almost  killed  the  queen.  The  king  had 
taken,  during  the  night,  the  precaution  to  fasten  with  cords  the 
immense  screens  of  tapestry  that  surrounded  her  Majesty's  bed  ; 
without  this,  they  would  certainly  have  been  thrown  down  on  her. 
It  was  not  possible  to  stir  in  the  room  ;  it  was  filled  with  a  crowd 
so  mixed,  that  one  could  fancy  one's  self  in  a  public  place.  Two 
Savo)^ards  climbed  on  the  furniture  to  get  a  better  view  of  the 
queen,  who  was  opposite  the  fireplace,  on  a  bed  prepared  for  her 
accouchement.  This  noise,  the  sex  of  the  child,  which  had  been 
communicated  to  the  queen  by  a  sign  agreed  upon,  they  say,  with 
the  Princess  de  Laraballe,  or  a  mistake  of  the  accoucheur,  for  a 


68  DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 

moment  suppressed  the  natural  sequel  of  child-birth.  The  blood 
flew  to  her  head,  her  mouth  was  twisted,  the  accoucheur  cried, 
'Air!  Hot  water;  she  must  be  bled  in  the  foot!'  The  win- 
dows had  been  caulked  ;  the  king  opened  them  with  a  strength 
which  nothing  but  his  love  for  the  queen  could  have  given  him  ; 
these  windows  were  very  high,  and  pasted  with  strips  of  paper 
all  their  length.  The  basin  of  hot  water  not  coming  quick 
enough,  the  accoucheur  told  the  first  surgeon  to  lance  without  it. 
He  did  so  ;  the  blood  fiowed  freely,  and  the  queen  opened  her 
eyes.  The  joy  that  came  so  rapidly  after  the  most  lively  fear  could 
scarce  be  restrained.  The  Princess  de  Lamballe  was  carried 
through  the  crowd  in  a  state  of  unconsciousness.  The  valets  de 
chambre  and  the  ushers  took  by  the  collar  those  whose  indiscreet 
curiosity  did  not  urge  them  to  clear  the  room.  This  cruel  ctistoin 
was  forever  abolished.  The  princes  of  the  family,  the  princes  of 
the  blood,  the  chancellor,  and  the  ministers  were  sufficient  to 
attest  the  legitimacy  of  an  hereditary  prince.  The  queen  was  re- 
called from  the  gates  of  death." — Mine  Campan. 

Here  it  was  that  Marie  Antoinette,  accustomed  to  the 
simplicity  and  freedom  of  the  Austrian  Court,  suffered  so 
cruelly  from  the  etiquette  of  Versailles. 

"  The  dressing  of  the  princess  was  a  masterpiece  of  etiquette  ; 
everything  was  by  rule.  The  lady  of  honor,  and  the  lady  of  the 
robes,  both  of  them,  if  they  were  present  together,  assisted  by  the 
first  bed-chamber  woman  and  two  maids  in  ordinary,  discharged 
the  principal  service.  But  there  were  distinctions  among  them. 
The  lady  of  the  robes  put  on  the  petticoat  and  presented  the  dress. 
The  lady  of  honor  poured  out  water  for  washing  the  hands,  and 
put  on  the  chemise.  When  a  princess  of  the  royal  family  was  at 
the  dressing,  the  lady  of  honor  yielded  to  her  this  function,  but 
she  did  not  yield  it  directly  to  princesses  of  the  blood  ;  in  this 
case  she  handed  the  chemise  to  the  first  bed-chamber  woman,  who 
presented  it  to  the  princess  of  the  blood.  Each  of  these  ladies 
observed  scrupulously  this  custom,  each  clinging  to  her  rights. 
One  winter  day,  it  happened  that  the  queen,  almost  entirely  un- 
dressed, was  just  about  to  put  on  her  chemise  ;  I  held  it  unfolded  ; 
the  lady  of  honor  came  in,  removed  her  gloves,  and  took  the 
chemise.  Some  one  scratched  at  the  door  ;  it  was  opened  ;  it  was 
the  Duchess  of  Orleans  ;  her  gloves  were  removed,  she  advanced 
to  take  the  chemise,  but  the  lady  of  honor  must  not  give  it  to  her  ; 


CHAMBRE   DE   LA    REI.VE 


69 


she  gave  it  to  me  and  I  handed  it  to  the  princess.  Another 
scratch  at  the  door  ;  it  is  Madame,  Countess  of  Provence  ;  the 
Duchess  of  Orleans  offered  her  the  chemise.  The  queen  was  hold- 
ing her  arms  crossed  over  her  breast,  and  seemed  to  be  cold. 
Madame  saw  her  distressed  attitude,  confined  herself  to  laying 
down  her  handkerchief,  kept  her  gloves  on,  and  in  putting  on  the 
chemise,  brought  the  queen's  hair  down.  The  queen  began 
to  laugh  to  hide  her  impatience,  after  having  muttered  between 
her  teeth  several  times,  'It  is  odious!  What  a  nuisance!'" — 
MiJie  Can  I  pa  72. 

The  pictures  comprise  : — 

2092.   Lcbrun:   Marriage  of  Louis  XIV. 

2ogi.  Ant.  Dicii:  Birth  of  the  Due  de  Bourgogne. 

2095.  Ant.  Dieii:    Marriage   of   the   Due   de  Bourgogne  and 

Marie  Adelaide  de  Savoie. 

These  pictures  are  very  interesting  as  showing  the 
different  members  of  the  royal  family,  of  whom  we  have 
heard  so  much,  at  three  different  times.  The  portraits 
are — 

2097.  Mme  Lebriin  :  Majie-Antoinette. 

"Qui  donnait  tant  d'eclat  au  trone  des  Bourbons, 
Tant  de  charmc  au  pouvoir,  tant  de  grace  a  ses  dons." 

Deiille. 

"Tall,  admirably  made,  the  best  walker  in  France,  carrying 
her  head  high  on  a  beautiful  Grecian  neck." — M e moires  de  Mine 
Vigee-Lebrun,  i.  64. 

2096.  N'atticr :  Marie-Leczinska. 

This  picture  of  Marie  Leczinska  partly  conceals  the 
door  of  the  passage  by  which  Marie  Antoinette  escaped 
from  her  bed-chamber  on  the  terrible  night  of  October  6, 
1789. 

"The  queen  went  to  bed  at  two  o'clock  in  the  morning  ;  she 
fell  asleep,  fatigued  by  a  painful  day.  She  ordered  her  two 
women  to  go  to  bed,  in  the  belief  that  there  was  nothing  to  fear, 
at  least,  that  night.      But  the  unfortunate   princess  owed  her  life 


yo  J^A  YS  NEAR   PARIS 

to  the  feeling  of  attachment  that  prevented  them  from  obeying 
her. 

"  On  leaving  the  queen's  apartment,  these  ladies  called  their 
maids,  and  all  four  sat  together  near  the  door  of  her  Majesty's 
bedroom.  About  half  past  four  o'clock,  they  heard  horrible  cries 
and  some  gun-shots  ;  one  of  them  went  in  to  awake  the  queen 
and  make  her  get  out  of  bed  ;  my  sister  flew  to  the  spot  where 
the  noise  seemed  to  be  ;  she  opened  the  door  of  the  ante-chamber 
leading  to  the  great  guard-room,  and  saw  one  of  the  body-guards, 
holding  his  musket  across  the  door,  who  was  being  attacked  by 
a  crowd  that  were  striking  him  ;  his  face  was  already  covered 
with  blood  ;  he  turned  and  called  to  her,  '  Madame,  save  the 
queen  ;  they  come  to  murder  her.'  She  suddenly  closed  the  door 
on  this  hapless  victim  to  his  duty,  pushed  in  the  large  bolt,  and 
took  the  same  precaution  as  she  passed  through  the  next  room  ; 
having  reached  the  queen's  room,  she  cried,  *  Madame,  get  out  of 
bed  ;  do  not  dress  yourself  ;  fly  to  the  king's  room  ! '  The  queen, 
in  terror,  sprang  out  of  bed  ;  a  petticoat  was  put  on  her  without 
being  tied,  and  the  two  ladies  conducted  her  towards  the  ail  de 
bccuf.  One  door  of  the  queen's  dressing-room,  adjoining  this 
room,  was  never  bolted  except  on  her  side.  What  a  frightful 
moment  !  It  was  bolted  on  the  other  side  !  We  knocked  re- 
peatedly ;  a  servant  of  the  king's  valet  opened  it  ;  the  queen  en- 
tered the  room  of  Louis  XVI.,  and  did  not  find  him  there.  In 
alarm  for  the  queen's  life  he  had  gone  down  by  the  stairs  and 
corridors  which  pass  under  the  o:il  de  ba;tif  ^.nd  lead  to  the  queen's 
room 'Without  the  necessity  of  crossing  that  apartment.  He  en- 
tered the  room  of  her  Majesty,  and  found  only  the  body-guards 
who  had  taken  refuge  there.  The  king  told  them  to  wait  some 
minutes,  as  he  feared  to  risk  their  lives,  and  bade  them  go  then 
to  the  ceil  de  bceiif.  ISIme  de  Tourzel,  then  governess  of  the  chil- 
dren of  France,  had  brought  Madame  and  the  Dauphin  to  the 
king's  chamber.  The  queen  saw  her  children  again.  We  ma}' 
paint  for  ourselves  this  scene  of  tenderness  and  of  desolation." — 
AInie  Camp  an. 

"The  murderers,  meeting  no  further  resistance,  entered, 
and  penetrated  to  the  queen's  bed,  the  curtains  of  which  they 
lifted.  Furious  at  finding  their  victim  escaped,  they  rushed  at  the 
bed  and  pierced  it  with  their  pikes.  From  the  queen's  apart- 
ments, thej^  returned  into  the  gallery,  to  force  the  ceil  de  boetif  2C!\d 
the  king's  apartments.  In  the  rage  which  transported  them  they 
would  have  massacred  all  the  royal  family,  if  they  had  not  met  in 


SALON  DE   LA    REINE 


71 


this  anteroom  some  old  grenadiers  of  tlfe  French  Guards  who 
took  the  body-guards  under  their  protection,  and  who,  in  concert 
with  a  few  of  them,  defended  the  king's  door.  The  grenadiers 
threatened  to  fire  on  this  horde  of  wretches,  if  they  did  not  at 
once  quit  the  chateau.  They  sneaked  off  by  the  great  staircase, 
and  joined,  in  the  courtyard,  the  group  of  ruffians  who  were  pre- 
paring to  put  to  death  the  fifteen  body-guards  under  the  very 
windows  of  the  king." — IVeber,  Afemoires. 

The  next  room,  Le  Salon  de  la  Reine^  was  the  meeting 
place  for  the  Court  of  Louis  XIV.  after  dinner.  Mme  de 
Sevigne'  describes  the  scene  whilst  Mme  de  Montespan 
was  in  the  height  of  her  favor. 

"2gth  Jul}',  1676. — You  know  the  ceremony  of  dressing  the 
queen,  the  mass,  the  dinner  ;  but  it  is  no  longer  necessary  to  be 
suffocated  while  their  Majesties  are  at  dinner,  for  at  three  o'clock 
the  king,  the  queen.  Monsieur,  Madame,  Mademoiselle,  all  the 
princes  and  princesses,  Mme  de  Montespan,  her  suite,  the 
courtiers,  the  ladies,  in  fine,  all  that  is  called  the  Court  of 
France  is  found  in  that  fine  apartment  of  the  king,  which  you 
know.  The  furniture  is  divine,  everything  is  magnificent.  We 
do  not  know  what  it  is  to  be  warm  there,  for  we  can  pass  freely 
from  one  spot  to  another.  A  game  of  revcrsis  arranges  everything. 
The  king  is  next  to  Mme  de  Montespan,  who  deals,  Monsieur, 
the  queen,  and  Mme  dc  Soubise,  Dangeau  and  company,  Langlee 
and  company  ;  a  thousand  louis  are  scattered  on  the  cloth,  there 
are  no  other  counters.  I  saluted  the  king  as  you  taught  me  ;  he 
returned  my  salute  as  if  I  had  been  young  and  pretty.  The  queen 
talked  a  long  time  with  me  about  her  illness.  M.  the  Duke  paid 
me  a  thousand  compliments,  and  then  Hitti  qtianti.  Mme  de 
Montespan  spoke  of  Bourbon,  and  begged  me  to  tell  her  about 
Vichy.  Her  beauty  is  surprising  ;  her  figure  is  not  half  as  stout 
as  it  was,  without  her  complexion,  eyes,  or  lips  being  less  beauti- 
ful. She  was  dressed  entirely  in  point  de  France,  her  hair  in  a 
thousand  curls,  the  two  on  the  temples  falling  down  low  on  the 
cheeks  ;  black  ribbons  on  her  head,  the  pearls  of  the  Mare- 
chale  d'Hopital,  set  Avith  clasps  and  pendants  of  diamonds  of 
the  highest  beauty,  three  or  four  pins,  no  cap-,  in  a  word,  a 
triumphant  beauty  to  astonish  all  the  ambassadors.  She  knew 
that  there  were  complaints  that  she  prevented  all  France  from 
seeing  the  king ;  she  has  restored  him  as  you  see,  and  3^ou  cannot 


72 


DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 


imagine  the  joy  of  all  the  world,  nor  the  beauty  this  gives  the 
court.  This  agreeable  confusion,  without  confusion,  of  all  that  is 
most  select,  lasts  from  three  to  six.  If  couriers  arrive,  the  king 
retires  for  a  moment  to  read  his  letters  and  then  returns.  There 
is  always  some  music  to  which  he  listens,  and  which  has  a  good 
effect ;  he  converses  with  the  ladies  who  are  accustomed  to  have 
that  honor.  The  game  is  given  up  at  six  o'clock.  ...  At  six,  the 
king,  Mme  de  Montespan,  M.  and  Mme  de  Thianges  enter  a  car- 
riage with  the  nurse  Heudicourt  on  the  step,  that  is,  in  paradise, 
or  the  glory  of  Niquee.  You  know  how  these  carriages  are  made  ; 
they  cannot  see  each  other,  for  all  face  the  same  way.  The  queen 
was  in  another  with  the  princesses,  and  then  all  the  world  trooped 
together  as  it  pleased.  There  are  gondolas  on  the  canal  ;  there  is 
music  there,  and,  on  our  return  at  ten,  there  is  a  play  ;  midnight 
strikes,  we  say  vwdia  iioche." 

The  pictures  in  this  room  include  : — 

2099.  Joseph  Ch7-istophe  :  The  Baptism  of  Louis    de   France, 

Dauphin,  son  of  Louis  XIV. 
2110.   Establishment  of  the  Hotel  des  Invalides. 
2098.  Visit  of  Louis  XIV.  to  the  Gobelins. 

The  portraits  are  : — 

2101.   Hyaciiitlie  Rigaud :  Louis  de  France,  Due  de  Bourgogne, 
the  beloved  pupil  of  Fenelon. 

"A  prince  whom  every  one  could  not  but  respect,  and  the 
few  remarks  he  made  occasionally  or  at  the  council  were  received 
with  surprising  attention  and  carried  real  weight. 

"  He  was  short  rather  than  tall,  a  long  brown  face,  the  upper 
part  perfect,  the  loveliest  e3'es  in  the  world,  a  bright,  touching, 
striking,  admirable  look,  usually  gentle,  always  piercing,  and  an 
agreeable,  proud,  refined,  spirituelle  countenance  that  inspired 
esprit.  The  lower  part  of  the  face  rather  pointed  ;  the  nose,  long, 
prominent,  but  not  handsome,  did  not  suit  him  well  ;  the  hair 
was  chestnut,  so  curly  and  abundant  that  it  pufTed  out.  It  was 
soon  perceptible  that  his  figure  was  changing.  He  became  hump- 
backed."—  St.  Simon. 

"  He  was  a  virtuous,  just  and  intelligent  man.  He  comforted 
the  king  when  he  could  ;  he  was  compassionate  and  gave  alms 
freely;  he  sold  all  his  mother's  jewels  and  gave  the  money  for 
poor  wounded  officers.  He  did  all  the  good  in  his  power,  and 
hurt  no  one  during  his  whole  life." — Correspondance  de  Madame. 


SALO.Y  DE   LA    REINE 


73 


2IOI.   Marie  Adelaide  de  Savoic,  Duchesse  de  Bourgogac. 

"4th  Nov.,  1696. — She  has  the  highest  grace  and  the  best 
figure  I  ever  saw  :  dressed  for  a  picture,  and  her  head,  too  ;  her 
eyes  are  bright  and  very  beautiful,  the  lashes  black  and  charm- 
ing, the  complexion  well  blended,  as  white  and  red  as  you  can 
desire  ;  the  most  beautiful  black  hair  that  can  be  seen,  and  in 
great  quantity  ;  the  mouth  red,  the  lips  full,  the  teeth  white,  long 
and  irregular,  the  hands  well  made,  but  of  the  color  of  her  age. 
...  I  am  quite  content.  ...  I  hope  you  will  be  so  too.  Her 
air  is  noble,  her  manner  polished  and  agreeable.  I  take  pleasure 
in  telling  you  this  good  report,  for  I  find  that,  without  prejudice 
or  flattery,  I  am  compelled  to  do  so." — Louis  XLV.  to  AInie  de 
Mainteno7t  after  meeting  the  Duchesse  de  Bottrgogne  at  Monta^'ges. 

"  15th  Dec,  1710. — As  for  the  Duchess  de  Bourgogne,  I  see 
to-day  all  the  world  chanting  her  praises,  her  good  heart,  her 
noble  spirit,  and  agreeing  that  she  knows  how  to  keep  a  thronged 
court  in  respect.  I  see  her  adored  by  the  Duke  de  Bourgogne, 
tenderly  loved  by  the  king,  who  has  just  placed  his  household  in 
her  hands  to  dispose  of  as  she  likes,  saying  publicly  that  she  will 
be  capable  of  directing  the  greatest  affairs."  ^ — Mine  de  Maintenon. 

"  The  king  had  brought  her  up  completely  to  his  wishes.  She 
was  his  only  consolation  and  only  joy.  Her  temper  was  so  gay 
that  she  always  knew  how  to  efface  his  wrinkles,  however  gloomy 
he  was.  A  hundred  times  a  day  she  ran  to  him,  and  always  said 
something  pleasant." — Corrcspondance  de  Madame. 

2103.  Rigaud :  Philippe  V.,  Roi  d'Espagne,  grandson  of  Louis 

XIV. 

2104.  Charles  de  France,  Due  de  Berry,  grandson  of  Louis 

XIV.,  younger  brother  of  the  Due  de  Bourgogne  and 
Philippe  V.  of  Spain,  who  died  May  4,  17 14,  with 
strong  suspicions  of  poison. 

"  M.  the  Duke  de  Berry  was  of  the  ordinary  height  of  most 
men,  rather  ^stout  every  way,  of  a  beautiful  blond  complexion, 
a  fresh,  handsome  countenance  which  indicated  brilliant  health. 
He  was  made  for  society,  and  for  the  pleasures  he  loved  ;  the 
best,  gentlest,  most  feeling,  most  accessible  man,  without  pride 
or  vanity,  but  not  without  dignity,  nor  without  feeling  it.  He 
was  the  best  looking  and  most  gracious  of  the  three  b'rothers,  and 
consequently  the  most  loved,  the  most  caressed,  the  most  admired 

^  Letter  to  the  Princesse  des  Ursins. 


74  BAYS  NEAR   PARIS 

by  the  world.  He  was  the  favorite  son  of  Monseigncur,  by  taste, 
and  by  his  natural  inclination  for  freedom  and  pleasure." — St. 
Simon. 

V Anticha7?ibre  de  la  Reine.    This  was  used  as  a  dining: 
room  for  the  gra?id  convert  de  /a  7'eine. 


to 


"One  of  the  most  disagreeable  customs  for  the  queen  was 
that  of  dining  in  public  every  day.  IVIarie  Leczinska  always  fol- 
lowed this  tiresome  usage  ;  Marie  Antoinette  observed  it  while 
she  was  Dauphiness.  The  Dauphin  dined  with  her,  and  every 
table  of  the  household  had  its  public  dinner  every  day.  The 
ushers  let  all  well  dressed  people  enter,  and  the  sight  delighted 
the  provincials.  At  the  dinner  hour  one  met  on  the  stairs  only 
good,  honest  folk,  who,  after  having  seen  the  Dauphiness  take 
her  soup,  went  to  see  the  princes  eat  their  boiled  joint,  and  then, 
hurried  breathlessly  to  see  Mesdames  take  desert." — Alme  Cam- 
pan, 

The  ceiling  comes  from  the  Ducal  Palace  at  Venice. 
The  pictures  comprise — 

2106.  Halle  :  The  Doge  of  Venice  and  Louis  XIV. 
2605.   E.  Tranqtie  :  Siege  of  Lille. 

2109.   Lcbntn  :  Louis  XIV.  on  horseback. 

"The  king  surpassed  all  the  courtiers  by  the  perfection  of 
his  figure,  and  the  majestic  beaut)'  of  his  face  ;  the  sound  of  his 
voice,  noble  and  touching,  gained  the  hearts  his  presence  intimi- 
dated ;  he  had  a  bearing  which  befitted  him,  and  his  rank  alone, 
and  would  have  been  ridiculous  in  any  one  else  ;  the  embarrass- 
ment he  inspired  in  those  he  spoke  to  secretly  flattered  the  com- 
placency with  which  he  felt  his  superiority.  Louis  XIV.  is  suffi- 
ciently depicted  in  these  two  verses  from  the  Be'reiiice  of  Racine  : — 

"  '  Ou'en  quelque  obscurite  que  le  ciel  Tcut  faii  naitre, 
Le  monde,  en  le  vo)'ant,  eiit  reconnu  son  maitre.'" 

Voltaire. 

2107.  Lebrun  and  Vandcrniculen  :  The  Defeat  of  the  Spanish 

•  army  at  Bruges,  Aug.  3,  1667. 

2108.  Girard :  Philippe  de  France,   Comte   d'Anjou  (second 

grandson  of  Louis  XIV.),  declared   King  of  Spain, 
as  Philippe  V. 


SALLE   DU   SACRE  ye 

The  portraits  are — 

2113.  Mme  de  Maintenon. 

2115.  Louis  Alexandre  de  Bourbon,  Comte  de  Toulouse,  sec- 

ond son  of  Louis  XIV.  and  Mme  de  Montespan. 

"  He  was  very  short,  but  he  possessed  honor,  virtue,  upright- 
ness, truth,  even  dignity,  a  manner  of  receiving  as  gracious  as  a 
natural  but  icy  coldness  permitted  ;  a  desire  and  capacity  for 
action,  but  by  fair  means,  while  his  just  and  direct  sense,  usually, 
supplied  the  place  of  intelligence." — St.  Simon. 

2110.   Anne  de  Chabot-Rohan,  Comtesse  de  Soubise. 

2114.  Louis  de  Bourbon,  Comte  de  Vermandois,  son  of  Louis 

XIV.  and  Mile  de  la  Valliere. 

By  the  door  which  the  Garde  du  Corps  was  murdered 
while  defending,  October  6,  1789,  and  which  the  bed- 
chamber women  bolted  on  the  inside,  we  enter  La  Salle 
des  Gardes  de  la  Reine  invaded  by  the  torrent  of  revolu- 
tionists armed  with  pikes  and  sabres,  shrieking  for  the 
blood  of  Marie  Antoinette. 

2116.  After  JMiguard :  Louis  de  France,  le  Grand  Dauphin, 

and  his  family. 

2117.  Santerre  :  Marie  Adelaide  de  Savoie,  Duchesse  de  Bour- 

gogne,  afterwards  Dauphine.     A  lovely  picture. 

"  Ever}-thing  the  Dauphiness  says  is  just  and  well  turned  ;  it 
leaves  nothing  to  be  desired  in  wit  or  in  humor,  and  this  is  such 
a  gift  that  the  rest  is  forgotten." — Altne  de  Sezngn^. 

Now,  for  a  moment,  we  quit  the  historic  recollections 
of  the  old  regime  to  enter  upon  La  Salle  du  Sacre,  fur- 
nished a  rEjitpi/r,  and  adorned  with  busts  of  Josephine, 
Marie  Louise,  and  the  parents  of  Napoleon,  In  the  centre 
is  '^Gli  Ultimi  Giorni  di  Napoleone  primo,"  a  noble  work 
of  Vela,  i860.     On  the  walls  are  — 

2277.  David :  Coronation  of  Napoleon  I. — an  immense  pict- 
ure, containing  one  hundred  figures.  The  painter 
at  first  represented  Pius  VII.  with  his  hands  upon  his 
knees.     The  Emperor  forced  him  to  alter  this,  say- 


76  DAYS  NEAR  PARIS 

ing,  "  Je  ne  I'ai  pas  fait  venir  de  si  loin  pour  ne  rien 
faire."  When  the  Emperor  went  to  the  artist's  studio 
to  see  the  picture — 

"The  courtiers  reproached  the  painter  for  having  made  the 
Empress  the  heroine  of  the  picture,  by  representing  her  corona- 
tion rather  than  Napoleon's.  The  objection  is  certainly  not  with- 
out foundation.  It  might  have  been  thought  that  the  new 
sovereign  had  foreseen,  calculated,  arranged  everything  in  ad- 
vance with  his  first  painter.  .  .  .  When  all  the  court  was  drawn 
up  before  the  picture,  Napoleon,  with  his  head  covered,  walked 
for  more  than  half  an  hour  before  the  large  canvas,  examining  all 
the  details  with  the  most  scrupulous  attention,  while  David  and 
the  spectators  remained  silent  and  motionless.  ...  At  last  he 
spoke :  '  It  is  well,  David,  very  well  ;  you  have  divined  m}^ 
thought ;  you  have  given  me  French  chivalry.  I  thank  you  for 
having  handed  down  to  future  ages  this  proof  of  the  affection  I 
wished  to  give  to  her  who  shares  with  me  the  toils  of  government.' 
Soon  after  Napoleon  took  two  steps  towards  David,  raised  his 
hat,  and,  with  a  slight  inclination  of  the  head,  said  in  raised 
voice,  '  David,  I  salute  you.'  " — Delesclusc. 

The  picture  represents  many  persons  not  present,  as 
Mme  Mere,  who  was  at  Rome  at  the  time  of  the  corona- 
tion. 

2278.    David :  Distribution  of  Eagles  to  the  Army,    Dec.   5, 

1804. 
2276.    Gros  :  The  Battle  of  Aboukir,  July  25,  1799. 
Between  the  windows  are  portraits  of  Napoleon  at  difTerent 

times.     That  (No.  2279)  representing  him  during  the 

Italian  campaigns  is  by  Rouillai-d. 

With  the  second  of  the  two  succeeding  rooms  we  re- 
turn to  the  times  of  Louis  XIV.,  as  it  was  the  Grand  Cab- 
inet of  Mme  de  Maintenon — "  la  toute-puissante,"  as  the 
Duchesse  d'Orleans  calls  her  in  her  letters. 

"The  apartments  of  Mme  de  Maintenon  were  on  the  first 
floor,  opposite  the  hall  of  the  king's  guards.  The  antechamber 
was  rather  a  long  narrow  passage  to  another  antechamber,  ex- 
actly similar,  in  which  only  the  captains  of  the  guards  entered, 
then  a  large,  very  deep  chamber.     Between  the  door,  giving  en- 


SALLE   DU   SACRE 


77 


trance  from  this  second  antechamber,  and  the  chimney,  was  the 
king's  armchair,  backed  up  to  the  wall,  a  table  before  it  and  a 
stool  for  the  minister  who  was  working  with  him.  On  the  other 
side  of  the  chimney-piece,  a  niche  of  red  damask,  and  an  arm- 
chair, where  Mme  de  Maintenon  remained  with  a  little  table 
before  her.  Further  on,  her  bed  in  a  recess.  Opposite  the  foot 
of  the  bed,  a  door  with  five  steps  to  mount,  then  a  large  cabinet, 
opening  on  the  first  antechamber  of  the  day-rooms  of  the  Duke 
de  Bourgogne,  which  this  door  enfiladed,  and  which  is  to-day  the 
apartment  of  Cardinal  Fleury.  This  first  antechamber,  having 
this  room  to  the  right  and  on  the  left  the  grand  cabinet  of  Mme 
de  Maintenon,  descended,  as  it  still  does,  by  five  steps  into  the 
marble  saloon  adjoining  the  landing  of  the  great  stairway  at  the 
end  of  the  two  galleries,  upper  and  lower,  called  those  of  the 
Duchess  of  Orleans  and  of  the  princes.  Every  evening  the 
Duchess  de  Bourgogne  played  cards  in  Mme  de  Maintenon's 
grand  cabinet  with  the  ladies  to  whom  the  entry  was  given,  a  favor 
not  extensively  accorded,  and  thence  entered,  as  often  as  she 
liked,  the  adjoining  room  which  was  the  chamber  of  Mme  de 
Maintenon,  where  she  was  with  the  king,  the  fire-place  between 
them.  Monseigneur,  after  the  comedy,  went  up  to  this  grand 
cabinet,  which  the  king  never  and  Mme  de  Maintenon  rarely 
entered. 

"Before  the  king's  supper,  the  servants  of  Mme  de  Mainte- 
non brought  her  some  soup  and  a  plate  and  some  other  dish. 
She  eat  her  supper,  her  women  and  one  valet  serving,  the  king 
always  present  and  almost  always  a  minister  at  work.  Supper 
over — it  was  short — the  table  was  removed  ;  her  women  remained 
and  immediately  undressed  her  in  a  minute,  and  put  her  in  bed. 
When  the  king  received  word  that  his  supper  was  ready,  he 
passed  for  a  moment  into  the  dressing-room,  and  afterwards 
went  to  say  a  word  to  Mme  de  Maintenon,  and  then  rang  a  bell 
which  communicated  with  the  grand  cabinet.  Then  Monseigneur, 
if  he  was  there,  the  Duke  and  Duchess  de  Bourgogne  and  her 
ladies,  the  Duke  de  Berry,  filed  into  the  room  of  Mme  de  Main- 
tenon, merely  traversing  it,  and  preceded  the  king,  who  pro- 
ceeded to  take  his  place  at  table,  followed  by  Mme  the  Duchess 
de  Bourgogne  and  her  ladies.  Those  who  were  not  in  her  ser- 
vice, either  went  away,  or,  if  they  were  dressod  to  go  to  the 
supper  (for  the  privilege  of  entering  this  cabinet  was  to  form  a 
court  there  for  the  Duchess  de  Bourgogne  without  it  being  one), 
made  a  tour  through  the  grand  guard-room  without  entering  Mme 


78  DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 

de  Maintenon's  room.     No  man,  save  the  three  princes,  ever  en- 
tered the  grand  cabinet." — St.  Simon, i-joii. 

Hence  we  enter — 

La  Salle  de  1792,  called  Salle  des  Cent-Suisses  under 
Louis  XVI.,  decorated  with  portraits  of  the  Consulate  and 
Empire.  The  little  rooms  adjoining,  now  called  Salles  des 
Aquarelles,  were  the  apartments  of  the  Due  de  Bourgogne, 
afterwards  of  Cardinal  Fleury  and  the  Due  de  Penthievre. 
Returning  to  the  Salle  de  1792,  and  crossing  a  landing 
which  has  statues  of  Louis  XIV.  by  Marin,  Napoleon  I. 
by  Cartellier,  and  Louis  Philippe  by  Diunont,  we  reach — 

(The  south  wing)  La  Galerie  des  Batailles,  formed 
under  Louis  Philippe  from  the  suite  of  apartments  in- 
habited under  Louis  XIV.  by  Monsieur  (Due  d'Orlenns) 
and  his  children.     We  may  notice — 

2672.     Ary  Scheffcr  :  Charlemagne  at  Paderborn. 
2676.     Eugene  Delacroix  :  Battle  of  Taillebourg. 
2715.      Gerard :  Henry  IV.  entering  Paris. 
2765.      Gerard:  Battle  of  Austerlitz. 
2674.  ^  f  Battle  of  Bovines. 

2743.  Battle  of  Fontenoy. 

2768.  \ Horace  Vernet:\  Battle  of  Jena. 
2772.  I  j  Battle  of  Friedland. 

2776.  J  [  Battle  of  Wagram. 

The  gallery  ends  in  the  Salon  de  1830  (in  the  ancient 
Pavilion  de  la  Surintendance),  containing  pictures  of 
events  in  the  reign  of  Louis  Philippe. 

Hence  we  must  return  to  the  little  rooms  belonging  to 
the  apartment  of  Mme  de  Maintenon,  which  now  form  a 
passage  to  a  staircase — VEscalier  de  Marhre,  leading  to 
the  upper  floor  of  the  south  wing.  Here,  turning  left,  we 
enter — 

Salle  L.  (time  of  Louis  XVIII.  and  Charles  X.),  begin- 
ning on  the  right — 


HISTORIC  PORTRAITS  yg 

4799.  Gerard  :  Caroline  Duchesse  de  Berry  and  her  children. 
(Daughter  of  Ferdinand  I.,  King  of  the  two  Sicilies, 
and  sister  of  Christina  of  Spain  ;  the  heroine  of  the 
civil  war  in  La  Vendee,  where  she  was  found  con- 
cealed in  a  chimney,  Nov.  7,  1832,  and  imprisoned 
at  Blaye.  She  married  as  her  second  husband  Count 
Lucchesi  Palli,  of  Venice,  by  whom  she  had  several 
children.) 

4795.  Gerard :  Charles  X. 

"  All  the  royal  qualities  of  his  soul  were  written  in  his  coun- 
tenance ;  nobleness,  frankness,  majesty,  goodness,  honor,  can- 
dor, all  revealed  a  man  to  love  and  be  beloved.  Depth  and 
solidity  alone  were  wanting  in  the  face  ;  in  looking  at  it,  one  felt 
attracted  to  the  man,  but  doubtful  about  the  king." — lamartine. 

4798.  Gerard :  Charles  Ferdinand  d'Artois,  Due  de  Berrv', 
1778-1820,  murdered  at  the  door  of  the  Opera  house. 

4831.  Jeanne  Louise  Henriette  Genet,  Mme  Campan,  super- 
intendent of  the  College  of  Ecouen. 

"Mme  Campan,  to  whom  Louis  XVL,  in  1792,  confided  the 
most  secret  and  dangerous  papers,  for  whom  Louis  XVL  in  his 
cell  at  Les  Feuillants,  August  10,  1792,  cut  off  two  locks  of  his 
hair,  giving  one  to  her,  the  other  to  his  sister,  while  the  queen, 
throwing  her  arms  alternately  round  their  necks,  exclaimed, 
'  Unhappy  women  ;  you  are  so  only  on  my  account  ;  I  am  more 
so  than  you.'  " — De  Lally. 

4833.   Stephanie  St.  Aubin,  Comtesse  de  Genlis. 

4797.    Gros  :    Marie   Therese,    Duchesse  d'Angouleme,    Dau- 

phine. 
4830.   Lawrence :  Gerard. 
4835.   Delaroche  :  Gregory  XVL 
4803.   Delaroche:    The    Due   d'Angouleme    at    the  taking  of 

Trocadero. 

4796.  Gerard :  Louis  Antoine  d'Artois,  Due  d'Angouleme. 
4794.    Ge'rard :  Le  Comte  d'Artois,  afterwards  Charles  X. 

Salle  II. — 

47S9.  David:    Pius   VIL — a   replica   of   the    portrait   m    the 

Louvre. 
4786.    Gros  :  His  own  portrait. 
4715.   Meyjiier :  Joseph  Fesch,  Cardinal  Archbishop  of  Lyons, 

uncle  of  Napoleon  L 


8o  DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 

"  The  gentlest  and  most  imperturbable  man  of  society." — 

Memoii'es  de  la  Duchesse  d' Abi-anth. 

(Unn.)   Giierin  (after  Gerard) :   Marie  Louise. 

"Her  height  was  ordinarv'- ;  what  she  was  utterly  devoid  of 
was  grace.  Very  fresh  complexion,  pretty  hair,  these  were  the 
charms  that  seduced  Napoleon." — Me'/tioires  de  la  Duchesse 
d'Aii'antes. 

4785.    Godcfroid:  Mme  Campan. 

4700.  Le  Thiere  :  The  Empress  Josephine. 

"Without  being  precisely  pretty,  her  whole  person  was  pe- 
culiarly charming.  There  were  delicacy  and  harmony  in  her  feat- 
ures ;  her  look  was  gentle  ;  a  small  mouth  skilfully  concealed 
bad  teeth  ;  her  complexion,  rather  dark,  was  aided  by  the  red  and 
white  she  habitually  employed  ;  her  figure  was  perfect,  all  her 
limbs  supple  and  delicate  ;  her  slightest  movements  were  easy 
and  elegant.  To  no  one  more  fully  could  be  applied  the  verse  of 
La  Fontaine  : 

"  '  Et  la  grace  plus  belle  encor  que  la  beaute.'  " 

Mme  de  Remus  at. 

4705.  Menjaj'd :  Napoleon  L,  with  Marie  Louise  and  the  King 

of  Rome. 
(Unn.)  Rotiget :  Napoleon   presenting  the   King  of  Rome  to 

the  great  dignitaries  of  the  Empire. 

Salle  III.— 

Pictures  of  Royal  Palaces. 

Salle  IV.~ 

English  Portraits. 

Galerie. — The  historic  pictures  here  are  terribly  injured 
by  coarse  "restoration;"  they  are  also  all  stripped  of  their 
original  frames. 

J^ight  Wall.— 

4558.    Ge'rai'd :    Laetitia     Ramolino,    mother    of    Napoleon — 
"  Mme  Mere." 

"A  woman  of  moderate  intelligence,  who,  in  spite  of  the  rank 
to  which  events  raised  her,  presents  nothing  to  praise." — Mme  de 
Remus  at. 


HISTORIC  PORTRAITS  8i 

"  Mme  Bonaparte,  the  mother,  had  a  high  and  remarkable 
character  ;  good  at  bottom,  with  a  cold  exterior,  and  possessing 
great  sense." — Me'moires  de  la  Duchesse  cI Abrantes. 

(Unn.)  Jeanron  :  Honore  Gabriel  de  Riqueti,  Comte  de  Mira- 

beau. 
4616.    Girodet :  Belle}',    a  ransomed   black   slave,  who  was  a 

deputy  at  the  Convention. 
4610.  Roiiillard :  Camille  Desmoulins. 

4613.  Haner :  Charlotte  Corday,  painted  a  few  minutes  before 

she  was  taken  to  execution.  When  the  executioner 
entered,  she  took  the  scissors  from  his  hands,  and, 
cutting  off  a  long  tress  of  her  hair,  gave  it  to  the 
painter  as  a  remembrance. 

4614.  Mme  Roland. 

4531.  Mauzaisse :  Mme  de  Genlis,  with  Eugenie  Adelaide 
d'Orleans,  and  Pamela,  afterwards  Lady  Edward 
Fitzgerald. 

"  Mme  de  Genlis  died  three  months  after  the  Revolution  of 
July.  She  lived  just  long  enough  to  see  her  pupil  king.  Louis 
Philippe  was  most  truly  a  little  of  her  making  ;  she  had  educated 
him,  like  a  man,  not  like  a  woman." — Victor  Hugo,  '"  Choses 
Viies." 

4523.  Risault :    Marie  Therese   Louise  de   Savoie   Carignan, 

Princesse  de  Lamballe. 
4458.  Nattier:  "Madame  Sophie,"  called   "  Graille  "  by  her 

father,  Louis  XV.     A  very  pretty  picture,  though  we 

read — 

"  Madame  Sophie  was  very  plain  ;  I  never  saw  anybody 
with  such  an  uncouth  air  ;  she  walked  very  quick,  and  in  order 
to  recognize,  without  staring,  the  people  who  drew  up  to  let  her 
pass,  she  had  acquired  the  habit  of  looking  from  side  to  side 
like  a  hare.  This  princess  was  so  timid  that  you  might  see  her 
ever)^  day  for  years  and  never  hear  her  utter  a  word.  It  is  said, 
however,  that  she  displayed  intelligence,  and  even  amiability,  in 
the  society  of  some  favorite  ladies  ;  she  studied  much,  but  read 
alone  ;  the  presence  of  a  reader  annoyed  her  infinitely." — M?ne 
Cainpan. 

4442.  Elizabeth  d'Orleans,  Mile  de  Beaujolais. 

442S.   Nattier:  Marie  Louise  de  France,    "Madame  Louise." 

4386.  Alexis  Belle  :  Louis  XV.  as  a  boy. 


82  DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 

4329.  Rigaud :  Gaston  Armand  de  Rohan,  Cardinal  de  Rohan. 

5065.  Escot :  Jean  Jacques  Rousseau. 

4476.    Vanloo :  Louis   Phelipeaux,    Comte   de   St.    Florentin, 

Secretary  of  State. 
4302.   Largilliere  :  The  Regent  d'Orleans. 

4275.  Jean  de  la  Fontaine. 

"  La  Fontaine,  so  well  known  for  his  Fables  and  Tales,  and 
always  so  heavy  in  conversation." — Sf.  Simon,  ''  Ale'fnoires"  1695. 

*2i96.  Fran9oise  d'Aubigne,  Mme  de  Maintenon,  and  Fran- 
5oise  Charlotte  d'Aubigne,  afterwards  Duchesse  de 
Noailles. 

4074.   Catherine  de  Medicis. 

4120.  Ary  Scheffer  :  Henri  IV. — "  sa  majeste  a  labarbegrise," 
as  Gabrielle  d'Estrees  used  to  call  him. 

4117.   Henri  IV.,  aged  thirty-eight.     XVII.  c. 

Left  Wall  {returnifig), 
*427o.   Philippe  de  Cha/npaigne :  Catherine  Agnes  d'Arnauld, 
Abbess  of  Port-Royal,  who  at  six  years  old  became 
Abbess  of  St.  Cyr,  and  at  nine  could  repeat  the  whole 
of  the  Psalms  by  heart. 

4276.  Rigaud :  Nicolas  Boileau. 

4374.    Greuze  :  Bernard  le  Borier  de  Fontenelle. 
4421,   Largilliere:  Nicolas  Coustou, 
4416.   Largilliere  :  The  Painter  and  his  Family. 
4405.   Chancellor  Maupeou. 

4510.  Auifiier :  Louise  Elizabeth  de  France,  "Madame  ITn- 
fante,"  eldest  daughter  of  Louis  XV. 

"Madame  Infante,  who  was  singularly  fat,  loved  very  rich 
dress,  and  possessed  great  good  nature  that,  without  injuring  her 
dignity,  penetrated  every  action." — Me'inoires  dii  Comte  Duport  de 
Cheverny. 

4455.  Nattier :  Anne  Henriette  de  France,  "  Madame  Henri- 
ette,"  second  daughter  of  Louis  XV. 

"  Henriette  lived  like  the  queen.  All  called  her  a  saint,  and 
called  her  just  what  we  saw  she  was.  When  compelled  to  go 
to  the  Comedy,  she  said  her  prayers." — Journal  of  Mme  Louise  de 
Prance. 

4441.   Marie  Leczinska. 


HISTORIC  PORTRAITS 


83 


"Marie  Leczinska  brought  nothing,  as  a  portion,  on  the  day 
of  her  nuptials,  except  modesty,  virtue,  and  goodness  of  heart." — 
WraxalVs  ''Hist.  Afemoirs." 

4485.  Roslin  :  Fran9ois  Boucher. 

4448.  After  Drotiais :  Mme  du  Barry  and  her  black  page 
Zamore  (who  afterwards  betrayed  her  to  death). 
*4520.  Mme  Lebrun  :  Marie  Antoinette  and  her  three  children. 
The  artist  relates  in  her  Memoirs  that  the  queen  al- 
ways passed  this  picture  on  her  way  to  and  from  mass 
in  the  chapel.  After  the  first  Dauphin  died  in  1789 
it  recalled  her  loss  so  vividly  that  she  had  it  moved, 
sending  at  the  same  time  to  tell  Mme  Lebrun  the 
reason,  for  fear  her  feelings  should  be  hurt. 

"The  only  good  portraits  of  the  queen,  in  existence,  are  that 
by  Werthmuller,  first  painter  to  the  king  of  Sweden,  and  that  by 
Mme  Lebrun,  saved  from  the  fury  of  the  revolution  by  the  com- 
missaires  of  the  wardrobe  at  Versailles,  There  reigns  in  the  com- 
position of  this  picture,  a  striking  analogy  with  that  of  Henriette 
of  France,  wife  of  the  unfortunate  Charles  L,  painted  by  Van 
Dyck  ;  like  Marie  Antoniette,  she  is  seated  surrounded  by  her 
children,  and  this  resemblance  adds  much  to  the  melancholy  in- 
terest which  this  beautiful  work  inspires." — Mme  Campaji. 

"  Le  ciel  mit  dans  ses  traits  cet  eclat  qu'on  admire  ' 
France,  il  la  couronna  pour  ta  felicite  : 
Un  sceptre  est  inutile  avec  tant  de  beaute  ; 
Mais  a  tant  de  vertu  il  fallait  un  empire." 

La  Harpe. 

4556.   Lebrun:  Gretry,  the  famous  dramatic  composer,  1741- 

1813. 
4561.  George  Washington. 
4526,  Mme  Lebrtin  :  Louise  Marie  Adelaide  de  Bourbon,  Du- 

chesse  d'Orleans. 
4551.  Boilly  :  Marmontel. 

4529.  Antoine  Philippe  d'Orleans,  Due  de  Montpensier. 
4607.   David:  Barere. 

4538.   Schillz  :  Louis  Antoine  de  Bourbon,  Due  d'Enghien. 
4550.  Danloux  :  Jacques  Delille. 
*4630.    Grcuze  :  Napoleon  Bonaparte,  as  First  Consul. 

Returning  to  Salle  I.  we  find  a  little  cabinet  containing 
a  number  of  sketches  for  pictures  by  Gerard, 


84  DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 

Beyond  the  head  of  the  Escalier  de  Marbre  are  four 
rooms  filled  with  modern  pictures.  The  second  room  con- 
tains portraits  of  Louis  Philippe,  Marie  Ame'lie,  Madame 
Adelaide,  and  all  the  princes  and  princesses  of  the  House 
of  Orleans,  mostly  by  Winterhalter. 

"  The  king's  error  was  in  not  despairing  soon  enough.  He 
was  accustomed  to  good  fortune,  and  the  good  fortune  of  his  long 
life  betrayed  him  in  the  last  days  of  his  reign." — Lamaj-tine. 

**The  queen  Marie  Amelie  had  an  exquisite  and  charming 
dignity,  and  represented  grace  and  distinction  in  the  somewhat 
bourgeois  circles  of  the  court." — Paul  Vassili. 

"  Madame  Adelaide  was  an  intelligent  woman  and  of  good 
advice,  which  was  freely  bestowed  in  harmony  with  the  king,  but 
never  in  excess.  Madame  Adelaide  had  something  manly  and 
cordial,  and  much  tact." — Victor  Hugo. 

2nd  Room. — 

Bonnet :  M.  Thiers. 

T^rd  jRoom. — The  Bonaparte  family,^  including — 
1561.  David :  Napoleon  I.  crossing  the  Great  St.  Bernard. 
5134.  Lefevre :  Napoleon  I.  in  his  imperial  robes. 

'*  Bonaparte  is  short,  not  well  proportioned,  because  the  length 
of  his  bust  makes  the  rest  of  his  person  seem  short.  He  has  thin, 
chestnut  hair,  grey-blue  eyes,  a  yellow  complexion,  while  he  was 
thin,  which,  later,  became  of  a  dull  colorless  white.  The  line  of 
his  brow,  the  setting  of  his  eye,  the  outline  of  the  nose,  were  all 
beautiful  and  recalled  ancient  medals.  His  mouth,  rather  flat, 
becomes  agreeable  when  he  laughs  ;  his  teeth  are  regular  ;  his 
chin  a  trifle  short,  and  the  jaw  square  and  heavy  ;  he  has  pretty 
hands  and  feet  ;  I  note  this  because  he  is  ver}^  proud  of  them," — 
Mme  de  Remus  at. 

"For  those  who  often  approached  Napoleon,  there  remains 
one  recollection  which  is  inseparable  from  his  presence  ;  that  is 
the  light  which  spread  over  all  his  features  when  he  smiled,  but 
with  the  consciousness  of  smiling  ;  then  his  eyes,  that  really  were 
beautiful,  and  his  incomparable  look,  grew  gentle,  and  however 

*  The  Bonapartes  descend  from  Bonaparte  di  Cianfardo,  who  (when  ex- 
pelled from  Florence  during  the  civic  broils)  settled  with  his  family  at  Sarzana 
in  the  middle  of  the  XIII.  c.  Hence  Francesco  di  Giovanni  Bonaparte  was 
sent  by  the  Republic  of  Genoa  to  Corsica,  c.  1512. 


E  SCALIER   BE   MARRRE  S^ 

little  the  smile  might  be  provoked  by  a  noble  sentiment,  his  coun- 
tenance then  assumed  a  divine  expression.  In  such  moments  the 
man  was  more  than  man." — Memoires  de  la  Duchesse  d' Abrantes. 

"The  only  eulogy  worthy  of  his  Majesty  is  the  most  simple 
history  of  his  reign." — Muraire,  Premier  President  de  la  Coiir  de 
Cassation. 

Ge'rard :  Josephine. 

4702.  Marie  Louise  and  Napoleon  II. 

"  Napoleon  loved  Marie  Louise  for  rank  and  pride.  She  was 
the  blazon  of  his  athliation  to  the  great  families.  She  was  the 
mother  of  his  son,  the  perpetuation  of  his  ambition.  .  .  .  She 
was  a  pretty  Tyrolese  girl,  with  blue  eyes,  light  hair,  and  a  slender, 
supple  figure." — Lamartine. 

5132.    Ge'rard :  Madame  Mere. 
Benoist :  Marie  Pauline,  Princess  Borghese. 
Lefevre :  Mme  Clary,  Queen  of  Naples. 

4412.  Mme  Lebrtin  :  Caroline,  Mme  Murat,  Grande-Duchesse 
de  Berg,  afterwards  Queen  of  Naples, 

"The  Grand  Duchess  of  Berg  (Caroline)  was  the  youngest 
and  prettiest  princess  of  the  imperial  family  ;  I  say  the  prettiest 
because  she  was  as  fresh  as  a  bunch  of  roses." — Memoires  de  la 
Duchesse  d' Abr antes. 

Plundered  of  all  her  fortune  by  Ferdinand  I.,  she  lived,  after 
the  fall  of  the  empire,  at  different  places  in  Austria  with  her 
sister  Elise. 

4714.   Marie  Julie,  Queen  of  Spain. 

4635.  Lefevre:  Lucien,  Prince  of  Canine. 

Le  Thiere :  Marianne-Elise,  Mme  Baciocchi,  Princess  of 
Piombino,  Grand  Duchess  of  Tuscany,  called,  for  her 
wise  government  and  efforts  for  the  amelioration  of  her 
country,  "  La  Semiramis  de  Lucques." 

"I  never  knew  a  woman  with  such  disagreeable  points  as 
hers." — Me'moires  de  la  Duchesse  d' Abrantes. 

Flandrin :  Napoleon  III.,  the  Empress  Eugenie,  and  the 
Princesses  Mathilde  and  Clotilde. 

A  corridor  contains  pictures  of  events  in  the  reign  of 
Louis  Pliilippe. 

We  may  now  descend   the   Escalier  de  Marbre^   the 


86  ^A  VS  NEAR   PARIS 

famous  staircase  where  Louis  XIV.  waited  for  the  Grand 
Conde,  weak  from  age  and  wounds,  saying,  "  Mon  cousin, 
ne  vous  pressez  pas,  on  ne  pent  monter  tres-vite  quand  on 
est  charge  comme  vous  de  tant  de  lauriers."  After  de- 
scending, at  tlie  foot  of  the  Escalier  de  Marbre,  we  find 
ourselves  on  the  ground  floor  of  the  palace,  and  may  finish 
exploring  the  south  wing,  by  traversin  ;  several  vestibules 
leading  to  a  series  of  halls  which  formed  the  apartments 
of  the  Due  and  Duchesse  de  Bourbon  under  Louis  XIV. 
(as  far  as  the  Vestibule  Napoleon),  and  which  now  are  the 
Galeries  de  V Empire.  The  pictures  in  these  rooms,  of  the 
modern  French  school,  illustrating  the  glories  of  the  past 
Empire,  are  of  no  great  interest.  The  last  hall — Salle  de 
Marengo — contains : 

1567.    David:   The    First    Consul    crossing    the    Great    St. 
Bernard. 

Hence,  descending  a  few  steps  of  the  Escalier  de 
Monsieur,  we  find — 

Les  Salles  des  Marines^  called  Le  Pavilhm  de  Mofisieur 
from  having  been  inhabited,  under  Louis  XVI.,  by  his 
second  brother,  the  Comte  de  Provence  (Louis  XVIII. ). 
The  pictures  are  by  modern  French  artists,  many  of  them 
by  Gudin.  From  these  halls  we  cross  the  Vestibule  de 
V Escalier  de  Provence  to  the  Salles  des  Tombeaux  under  the 
ground  floor,  because  the  level  of  the  ground  is  so  much 
lower  on  the  garden  side  of  the  palace.  Mounting 
L'Escali-er  de  Monsieur  on  the  right  (parallel  with  the 
Galeries  de  I'Empire)  we  find — 

La  quatrieme  Galerie  de  Sculptures ^  containing  busts 
and  statues  of  celebrated  persons  from  the  Great  Revolu- 
tion to  1814. 

This  completes  the  tour  of  the  south  wing.     Descend- 


SALLE S  DES    TABLEAUX-PLANS  87 

ing  L'Escalier  des  Fri?tcrs,  and  crossing  the  vestibule  lead- 
ing to  the  gardens,  we  may  enter  the  halls  on  the  ground 
floor  of  the  central  part  of  the  palace.  Three  vestibules 
filled  with  sculpture  lead  to  a  number  of  rooms  which 
formed  the  apartment  of  "  Monseigneur "  (Le  grand 
Dauphin),  son  of  Louis  XIV.,  and,  after  his  death,  of  the 
Due  and  Duchesse  de  Berry ;  then,  later,  of  the  Dauphin, 
son  of  Louis  XV.     Of  these,  the — 

Salle  des  Amiraux  contains  portraits  of  French  admi- 
rals from  Florent  de  Varennes  in  1270,  admiral  under  St. 
Louis,  to  the  Due  d'Angouleme,  son  of  Charles  X. 

Salle  des  Con?ietables. — There  were  thirty-nine  constables 
under  the  old  monarchy,  the  most  illustrious  being  Du- 
guesclin,  Olivier  de  Clisson — "le  boucher  des  Anglais," 
and  Anne  de  Montmorency.  The  last  was  Lesdiguieres, 
under  Louis  XIII. 

Salles  des  Marechaux. — The  portraits  of  the  Marshals 
of  France,  more  than  300  in  number,  fill  thirteen  halls. 
We  should  turn  aside  at  the  seventh  hall  if  we  wish  to 
enter  the — 

Salle  des  Rois  de  France^  containing  a  collection  of  por- 
traits of  sovereigns. 

Les  Salles  des  Residences  royales  contain  a  number  of 
pictures  of  interest,  especially  those  of  palaces  which  have 
been  destroyed — Marly,  the  old  Louvre,  the  Tour  de  Nesle, 
&c.,  as  well  as  of  Versailles  at  many  different  periods. 

Returning  to  the  Salle  des  Rois  de  France,  and  cross- 
ing  the  Vestibule  de  Louis  XIII.,  opening  upon  the  Cour  de 
Marbre,  we  reach  the — 

Salles  des  Tableaux- Plans,  containing  plans  of  battles 
from  1627  to  1844.  The  salle  w^hich  forms  the  angle  of 
one  of  the  pavilions  of  the  chateau  of  Louis  XIII.  was  part 
of  the  Salle  des  Gardes  pour  V Apparteinent  particulier  du 


SS  DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 

Rot,  with  the  staircase  called  IJ Escalier  dii  Roi.  Louis 
XV.  was  descending  this  staircase,  when  he  was  attacked 
by  Damiens,  who  was  seized  in  the  hall  below. 

"The  5th  of  January,  in  the  evening,  as  ihe  king  was  de- 
scending into  the  marble  court,  to  go  from  Versailles  to  Trianon, 
a  man  glided  between  the  guards  and  him,  and  gave  him  a  blow 
in  the  side.  Louis  carried  his  hand  to  the  spot  struck,  and  drew 
it  back  stained  with  blood.  With  some  presence  of  mind,  he  rec- 
ognized the  assassin  by  his  having  his  hat  on  alone,  and  had 
him  seized — ordered  that  no  violence  be  done  him.  There  was 
nothing  found  on  him  but  a  knife  with  two  blades,  the  smaller, 
a  kind  of  penknife  ;  it  was  with  this  that  he  had  struck,  and,  thanks 
to  the  thick  redingote  in  which  the  king  was  wrapped,  the  point 
only  entered  four  lines. 

"Damiens  had  no  accomplices,  and  was  not,  speaking 
strictly,  an  assassin.  He  was  a  lackey  out  of  place,  with  a  brain 
bewildered  and  excited  by  remarks  heard  in  the  Great  Hall  of 
the  Palais,  or  in  the  ante-chambers  of  some  councillors  of  the 
parliament  and  some  pious  Jansenists.  He  did  not  wish  to  kill 
the  king,  but  only  to  give  him  a  ivarning,  in  order  that  he  should 
cease  persecuting  the  parliament,  and  punish  the  archbishop,  the 
cause  of  all  the  ill.  He  ought  to  have  been  sent  to  Bicetre  ;  he 
was  condemned  to  the  frightful  punishment  borne  by  Ravaillac  : 
he  was  torn  by  pincers,  melted  lead  was  poured  on  him,  and  he 
was  then  quartered  by  four  horses  (28th  March,  1757)." — Martin, 
'''Hist,  de  France.'' 

Returning  hence,  we  cross  the  vestibule,  to  the  Galerie 
de  Louis  XIII.,  containing  his  statue,  that  of  Anne  of  Aus- 
tria, and — 

Charles  Lebriin  :  The  Meeting  of  Louis  XIV.  and  Philippe 
IV.  at  the  Isle  of  Pheasants. 

Several  of  the  last  six  Salles  des  Marechaux  formed  part 
of  the  Appartement  des  Bains,  inhabited  by  "  Mesdames," 
daughters  of  Louis  XV.  The  last  salle  was  the  bedcham- 
ber of  Mme  de  Pompadour. 

Les  Salles  des  Guerriers  cklebres  contain  the  portraits  of 
famous    warriors    (not    constables   or   marshals).      These 


THE    GARDENS  S9 

rooms  were  the  cabinet  and  antechamber  of  Mme  de  Pom- 
padour. 

The  garden  front  of  the  pahice  has  not  yet  experienced 
the  soothing  power  of  age.  It  looks  almost  new  ;  two  hun- 
dred years  lience  it  will  be  magnificent.  The  long  lines  of 
the  building,  with  its  two  vast  wings,  are  only  broken  by 
the  top  of  the  chapel  rising  above  the  wing  on  the  left. 

"Here  all  is  the  work  of  Louis  XIV.,  all  is  new  and  com- 
pletely symmetrical.  The  immense  development  of  the  hori- 
zontal lines  compensates  for  the  want  of  height  in  the  buildings. 
It  displays  none  of  the  happy  irregularities  of  the  old  national 
architecture.  The  monotony  of  this  absolute  uniformity  is  inter- 
rupted only  by  the  projection  of  the  central  body  before  the  two 
wings,  a  projection  that  announces  the  portion  of  the  palace 
consecrated  by  the  Master's  presence.  This  central  body  is 
dominant  on  all  sides,  whether  one  looks  at  it  from  the  middle 
of  the  garden,  or  whether,  from  the  wooded  slopes  of  Satory,  one 
has  a  side  view  of  it,  towering  above  its  immense  terrace,  between 
the  double  Giant  Stairs,  to  which  there  is  nothing  comparable. 
From  all  sides  you  must  mount  up  to  arrive  at  the  spot  where 
the  supreme  majesty  is  enthroned." — Martin,  ''Hist,  de  France." 

The  rich  masses  of  green  formed  by  the  clipped  yews 
at  the  sides  of  the  gardens  have  the  happiest  effect,  and 
contrast  vividly  with  the  dark  background  of  chestnuts,  of 
which  the  lower  part  is  trimmed,  but  the  upper  falls  in 
masses  of  heavy  shade,  above  the  brilliant  gardens  with 
their  population  of  statues.  These  grounds  are  the 
masterpiece  of  Lenotre,  and  of  geometrical  gardening, 
decorated  with  vases,  fountains,  and  orange-trees.  Lovers 
of  the  natural  may  find  great  fault  with  these  artificial 
gardens,  but  there  is  much  that  is  grandiose  and  noble 
in  them ;  and,  as  Voltaire  says :  "  II  est  plus  facile  de 
critiquer  Versailles  que  de  le  refaire." 

"Thanks  to  Lenotre,  Louis,  from  the  window  of  his  incom- 
parable Galeiie  des  Glaces,  sees  nothing  but  his  own  creation.  The 


90 


DA  YS  XE.4R    PARIS 


entire  horizon  is  liis  work,  for  the  garden  fills  the  horizon.  It  is 
at  once  the  masterwork  of  the  great  artist  who  covered  France 
with  his  monuments  of  verdure,  and  the  masterwork  of  that 
singular  art  which  must  be  judged,  not  by  itself,  but  in  reference 
to  the  edifices  to  whose  lines  its  lines  are  united,  an  architecture 
of  vegetation  which  frames  and  completes  the  architecture  of 
stone  and  marble.  Whole  groves  were  brought,  full  grown,  from 
the  depths  of  the  fairest  forests  of  France,  and  the  art  of  ani- 
mating marble,  and  the  art  of  moving  Avater,  filled  them  with  all 
the  prodigies  of  which  fancy  could  dream.  An  innumerable 
population  of  statues  animates  the  woods  and  lawns,  is  reflected 
in  the  waters  or  rises  from  the  bosom  of  the  wave.  All  the  deities 
of  the  forests,  the  rivers  and  the  sea,  all  the  dreams  of  ancient 
poetry  seem  to  have  gathered  at  the  feet  of  the  great  king. 
Neptune  seems  to  spout  from  all  points  the  waters  of  Versailles 
that  cross  in  the  air  in  sparkling  arches,  Neptune  is  the  servant 
of  Louis  ;  Diana,  the  solitary  goddess  of  the  woods,  becomes  his 
lover  under  the  lineaments  of  the  chaste  La  Valliere.  Apollo, 
his  favorite  symbol,  presides  over  all  this  enchanted  world.  At? 
the  two  extremities  of  the  view  is  seen  the  mythologic  sun, 
transparent  emblem  of  Louis,  rising  from  the  floods  on  his  car 
to  illuminate  and  rule  the  world,  and  plunging  into  them  to  cast 
ofif  the  burden  of  celestial  government  in  the  voluptuous  shade 
of  the  Grotto  of  Thetis." — Henri  Martin. 

"  Depuis  qu'Adam,  ce  cruel  homme, 
A  perdu  son  fameux  jardin. 
Oil  sa  femme,  autour  d'une  pomme, 
Gambadait  sans  vertugadin, 
Je  ne  crois  pas  que  sur  la  terre 
II  soit  un  lieu  d'arbres  plante, 
Mieux  exerce  dans  I'art  de  plaire, 
Plus  examine,  plus  vante. 
Plus  decrit,  plus  lu,  plus  chante, 
Que  I'ennuj-eux  pare  de  Versailles." 

Alfred  de  M us  set. 

The  gardens  need  the  enlivenment  of  the  figures,  for 
which  they  were  intended  as  a  background,  in  the  gay 
Courts  of  Louis  XIV.  and  Louis  XV.  as  represented  in 
the  pictures  of  Watteau ;  but  the  Memoirs  of  the  time 
enable  us  to  repeople  them  with  a  thousand  forms  which 


THE    GARDE XS  gi 

have  long  been  dust,  centring  around  the  great  king,  "  Se 
promenant  dans  ses  jardins  de  Versailles,  dans  son  fauteuil 
a  roues." 

"  If  you  wish  to  find  once  more  this  vanished  world,  look  for 
it  in  the  works  which  have  preserved  its  outward  forms  or  accent, 
at  first  in  the  paintings  and  engravings  of  Watteau,  Fragonard 
and  the  St.  Aubins,  then  in  the  romances  and  comedies  of  Voltaire, 
Marivaux,  even  Colle  and  Crebillon  the  younger  ;  there  you  see 
the  figures  and  hear  the  voices.  What  refined  Countenances, 
engaging  and  gay,  all  brilliant  with  pleasure  and  desire  to  please  ! 
What  ease  in  gait  and  bearing  !  What  piquant  grace  in  dress  and 
smile,  in  the  vivacious  chatter,  the  management  of  the  fluty  voice, 
the  coquetry  of  veiled  allusions  !  How  one  involuntarily  lingers 
to  look  and  listen  !  Prettiness  is  everywhere,  in  the  small 
spiritual  heads,  the  waving  hands,  the  beribboned  attire,  the  doll- 
looks  and  the  faces." — Taine,  ''  Lcs  Origines  de  la  France  Con- 
temporaine ." 

The  sight  of  the  magnificent  terraces  in  front  of  the 
palace  will  recall  the  nocturnal  promenades  of  the  Court, 
so  much  misrepresented  by  the  enemies  of  Marie  An- 
toinette. 

"The  summer  of  1778  was  extremely  hot  ;  July  and  August 
passed  without  a  single  storm  refreshing  the  air.  The  queen, 
inconvenienced  by  her  pregnancy,  passed  whole  days  in  her  own 
strictly  closed  apartments,  and  could  not  sleep  till  she  had 
breathed  the  fresh  night  air,  walking  with  the  princesses  and 
their  brothers,  on  the  terrace  beneath  her  rooms.  At  first,  these 
walks  created  no  sensation,  but  the  idea  arose  of  enjoying,  dur- 
ing these  beautiful  summer-nights,  the  effect  of  a  concert  of  wind 
instruments.  The  musicians  of  the  chapel  were  ordered  to  per- 
form pieces  of  this  kind,  on  a  platform  raised  in  the  middle  of 
the  parterres.  The  queen,  seated  on  a  bench  on  the  terrace,  with 
all  the  royal  family,  except  the  king,  who  only  appeared  twice, 
as  he  did  not  wish  to  change  his  bedtime,  enjoyed  the  effect  of 
this  beautiful  music.  Nothing  could  be  more  innocent  than 
these  walks,  yet  soon  Paris,  France,  even  Europe  were  occupied 
with  them  in  a  manner  most  injurious  to  the  character  of  Marie 
Antoinette.  It  is  true  that  all  the  inhabitants  of  Versailles 
wished  to  enjoy  these  serenades  and  that,  very  soon,  there  was  a 


92 


J) A  YS  NEAR   PARIS 


crowd  from  eleven  o'clock  to  two  or  three  in  the  morning.  The 
windows  of  the  ground  floor,  occupied  by  Monsieur  and  Ma- 
dame, remained  open,  and  the  terrace  was  jjcrfectly  lighted  by 
numerous  candles  in  these  two  apartments.  Some  terrincs, 
placed  in  the  parterres,  and  the  lights  on  the  platform  of  the 
musicians,  lighted  up  the  rest  of  the  place  where  they  were. 

"  I  do  not  know  if  some  thoughtless  women  ventured  to  go 
off  and  descend  into  the  lower  part  of  the  park  ;  it  may  be  so  ; 
but  the  queen,  Madame,  and  the  Comtesse  d'Artois,  were  arm  in 
arm,  and  remained  on  the  terrace.  Dressed  in  robes  of  white 
percale,  with  large  straw  hats,  and  muslin  veils  (a  costume 
generally  adopted  by  the  women),  while  the  princesses  were 
seated  on  the  benches,  they  were  difficult  to  distinguish  ;  but, 
when  standing,  their  different  stature  made  them  always  easy  to 
recognize,  and  the  others  drew  up  to  let  them  pass.  It  is  true 
that,  when  they  sat  down  on  the  benches,  some  private  persons 
came  and  sat  beside  them,  which  amused  them  much." — Mme 
Canipan,  *^  Memoircs.'' 

Very  stately  is  the  view  clown  the  main  avenue — ^great 
fountains  of  many  figures  in  the  foreground  ;  then  the 
brilliant  Tnpi::  Vert,  between  masses  of  rich  wood;  then 
the  Bassin  d^ Apollon,  and  the  great  canal  extending  to 
distant  meadows,  and  lines  of  natural  poplars. 

One  of  the  finest  views  of  the  palace,  giving  an  impres- 
sion of  its  immensity,  is  from  the  head  of  the  steps  which 
descend  from  the  terrace  of  the  Parterre  dii  Midi,  towards 
the  water.  Here  visitors  will  be  reminded  of  the  poem  of 
Alfred  de  Musset  Sur  irois  marches  de  marbre  rose.  The 
lake  is  called  the  Piece  d^Pau  des  Suisses,  and  was  made 
by  the  Swiss  regiment  in  1679.  Beyond  it  is  an  equestrian 
statue  by  Bernini,  executed  at  Rome,  and  intended  for 
Louis  XIV.  ;  but  the  king  was  so  dissatisfied  with  it  that 
he  cut  off  its  head  and  replaced  it  by  one  by  Girardon, 
intended  for  Marcus  Curtius.  Beneath  this  terrace  is  the 
Orangerie,  a  stately  arcaded  building  by  Mansart,  with 
noble  orange  and  pomegranate  trees. 


JARDIN  DU  ROT  93 

"The  beauty  and  number  of  the  orange  trees  and  other 
plants  kept  there,  cannot  be  expressed.  There  are  some  of  the 
trees  which  have  resisted  the  attacks  of  a  hundred  winters." — 
La  Fontaine,  "' Amonj'  de  Psyche  ct  Cupidou." 

It  was  in  the  Orangerie  that  Madame,  mother  of  the 
Regent,  was  walking  one  day — thinking  herself  alone — 
singing  the  Lutheran  canticles  of  her  youth,  when  a  painter 
(a  refugee)  at  work  there,  flung  himself  at  her  feet,  saying, 
"  Est-il  possible,  madame,  que  vous  vous  souvenez  encore 
de  nos  Psaumes  ?  " 

From  the  Parterre  du  Nord,  the  Allee  d^Eau,  formed 
by  Claude  Perrault,  leads  to  the  immense  Basshi  de  Nep- 
tune. Louis  XV.  used  to  watch  the  progress  of  its  deco- 
rations, attended  by  his  dogs — Gredinet,  Charlotte,  and 
Petite  Fille,^ — whilst  Madame  du  Barry  walked  in  the 
Allee  d'Eau,  followed  by  her  little  negro  Zamore.  The 
Bassin  de  Neptune  is  the  great  attraction  at  the  time  of 
the  graiides  eaux. 

The  great  central  Allee  du  Tapis  Vert  runs  between 
bosquets  adorned  by  statues  and  fountains.  Of  the  bos- 
quets on  the  left,  that  nearest  the  palace  is  the  Bosquet  de 
la  Cascade^  or  Salle  de  Bal,  where  the  Grand  Dauphin  used 
to  give  his  hunting  dinners. 

The  neighboring  Bosquet  de  la  Reine  is  that  where  Car- 
dinal Rohan  mistook  Mile  Oliva  for  Marie  Antoinette. 

The  Allee  d^ Automne  2ir\d  the  Quinconce  du  Midi  [wh&xtt 
bands  play  in  summer  on  Sundays  and  Thursdays  from  3 
to  4.30)  lead  to  the  yardin  du  Roi  (open  after  May  i 
from  2  P.M.),  formed  by  Louis  XVIIL  The  neighboring 
Bosquet  de  la  Colonnade  owes  its  architectural  designs  to 
Hardouin  Mansart. 

At  the   end   of  the   Allee  du   Tapis   Vert  is   the  vast 

^  Familiar  to  us  from  the  admirable  paintings  of  Oudry  in  the  Louvre. 


94 


DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 


Bassin  d^Apollon,  decorated  by  a  figure  of  the  god  in  his 
chariot  (designed  by  Lebrun),  who  throws  up  magnificent 
jets  of  water  on  tlie  days  when  the  fountains  play.  The 
Grand  Cmial,  which  opens  from  this  basin,  was  covered 
with  boats  in  the  time  of  Louis  XIV. 

Amongst  the  bosquets  on  the  north,  we  need  only  espe- 
cially notice,  near  the  Fojitaine  de  Diane^  the  Bosquet  d'' Apol- 
lo?i,  adorned  by  a  group  of  Apollo  and  the  nymphs,  by 
Girardon  and  Regnaudin,  one  of  the  many  sculptures  in 
which  Louis  XIV.  is  honored  as  a  divinity. 

This  group  originally  stood  in  the  Grotte  de  Thetis, 
destroyed  when  the  north  wing  of  the  palace  was  built.  It 
is  described  by  La  Fontaine  : — 

"  Ce  Dieu,  se  reposant  sous  ces  voutes  humides, 
Est  assis  au  milieu  d'un  choeur  de  Nereides  ; 
Toutes  sont  des  Venus,  de  qui  Fair  gracieux 
N'entre  point  dans  son  coeur  et  s'arrete  a  ses  yeux  ; 
II  n'aime  que  Thetis,^  et  Thetis  les  surpasse." 

The  great  difficulty  in  erecting  the  gardens  of  Ver- 
sailles arose  from  the  want  of  water,  eventually  overcome 
by  bringing  it  {ks  eaux  hautes)  from  Trappes,  and  {les 
eaux  basses)  from  the  plain  of  Saclay.  It  was  at  one  time 
attempted  to  divert  the  whole  riv^er  Eure,  by  an  aqueduct 
from  Maintenon,  to  the  use  of  Versailles. 

"  Nothing  has  pleased  me  so  much  as  what  you  tell  me  of  the 
great  beauty  that  is  to  appear  at  Versailles,  fresh,  pure,  and  natu- 
ral, and  is  to  efface  all  other  beauties.  I  assure  you  I  was  jeal- 
ous, and  expected  some  new  beauty  to  arrive  and  be  presented 
at  the  court.  I  find,  all  at  once,  that  it  is  a  river  which  has  been 
led  from  its  path,  precieuse  as  it  is,  by  an  army  of  forty  thousand 
men  ;  no  fewer  were  required  to  make  its  bed.  It  seems  it  is  a 
present  that  Mme  de  Maintenon  makes  to  the  king,  of  the  thing 
which  he  desires  most  in  the  world." — Mme  de  Se'vigne',  1684. 

*  Marie  Th^rese. 


LE    GRAiXD    TRIANON  95 

The  Trianojis  may  be  reached  in  half  an  hour  from  the 
railway  station,  but  the  distance  is  considerable,  and  a  car- 
riage very  desirable  considering  all  the  walking  inside  the 
palaces  to  be  accomplished.  Carriages  take  the  straight 
avenue  from  the  Bassin  de  Neptune.  The  pleasantest  way 
for  foot-passengers  is  to  follow  the  gardens  of  Versailles  as 
far  as  the  Bassin  d'Apollon,  and  then  turn  to  the  right. 
At  the  end  of  the  right  branch  of  the  grand  canal,  stair- 
cases lead  to  the  park  of  the  Grand  Trianon ;  but  these 
staircases  are  railed  in,  and  it  is  necessary  to  make  a 
detour  to  the  Grille  de  la  Grande  Entree,  whence  an  ave- 
nue leads  directly  to  the  Grand  Trianon,  while  the  Petit 
Trianon  lies  immediately  to  the  right,  behind  the  buildings 
of  the  Concierge  and  Corps  de  Garde. 

The  Trianons  are  open  daily,  but  the  apartments  cannot  be 
visited  without  a  guide.  Salle  dcs  Voittires  (entered  from  the 
esplanade  before  the  Grand  Trianon)  is  only  open  on  Sundays 
and  Thursdays. 

The  original  palace  of  the  Grand  Trianon  was  a  little 

chateau  built  by  Louis  XIV.  in  1670,  as  a  refuge  from  the 

fatigues  of  the  Court,  on  land  bought  from  the  monks  of 

St.   Genevieve,  and  belonging  to  the  parish  of  Trianon. 

But  in  1687  the  humble  chateau  was  pulled  down,  and  the 

present  palace  erected  by  Mansart  in  its  place. 

"The  king,  who  liked  building,  and  had  cast  off  his  mis- 
tresses, had  pulled  down  the  little  porcelain  Trianon  he  had  made 
for  Mme  de  Montespan,  and  was  rebuilding  it  in  the  form  it  still 
retains.  Louvois  was  superintendent  of  the  buildings.  The 
king,  who  had  an  extremely  accurate  eye,  perceived  that  one  win- 
dow was  a  trifle  narrower  than  the  others.  He  showed  it  to 
Louvois  to  be  altered,  which,  as  if  was  not  finished,  was  easy  to 
do  ;'  Louvois  maintained  the  window  was  all  right.  The  king 
insisted  then  and  next  day,  too,  but  Louvois,  pig-headed  and  in- 
flated with  his  authority,  would  not  yield. 

"The  next  day  the  king  saw  Le  Notre  in  the  gallery.  Al- 
though his  trade  was  with  gardens  rather  than  houses,  the  king 


gS  DAYS  NEAR   PARIS 

consulted  him  on  the  matter.  He  asked  him  if  he  had  been  to 
Trianon.  Le  Notre  replied  that  he  had  not.  The  king  ordered  him 
to  go.  On  the  morrow  he  saw  Le  Notre  again  ;  same  question, 
same  answer.  The  king  comprehended  the  reason  of  all  this, 
and,  a  little  annoyed,  commanded  him  to  be  there  that  afternoon 
at  a  given  time.  Le  Notre  did  not  dare  to  disobey  this  time.  The 
king  arrived,  and  Louvois  being  present,  they  returned  to  the  sub- 
ject of  the  window  which  Louvois  obstinately  said  was  as  broad 
as  the  rest.  The  king  wished  Le  Notre  to  measure  it,  for  he 
knew  that,  upright  and  true,  he  would  say  openly  what  he  found. 
Louvois,  piqued,  grew  angry.  The  king,  no  less  so,  let  him  say 
his  say.  Le  Notre  did  not  stir.  At  last  the  king  made  him  go, 
Louvois  still  grumbling  and  maintaining  his  assertion  with  au- 
dacity and  little  measure.  Le  Notre  measured  the  window  and 
said  that  the  king  was  right  by  several  inches  Louvois  still 
wished  to  argue,  but  the  king  silenced  him,  commanding  him  to 
have  the  window  altered  at  once,  and,  contrary  to  his  custom, 
abusing  him  roundly. 

**  What  annoyed  Louvois  most,  was  that  this  scene  took  place 
not  only  before  all  the  officers  of  the  buildings,  but  in  presence 
of  all  who  followed  the  king  in  his  promenades,  nobles,  courtiers, 
officers  of  the  guard  and  others,  even  the  valets,  because  the 
building  was  just  rising,  all  were  on  a  level,  a  few  steps  off,  and 
everything  was  open  and  ever)^body  in  attendance  everywhere. 
The  dressing  given  to  Louvois  was  smart  and  long,  with  reflections 
on  the  fault  of  this  window,  which,  if  unnoticed,  might  have 
spoiled  all  the  fagade  and  compelled  it  to  be  rebuilt. 

"  Louvois,  not  accustomed  to  such  treatment,  returned  home 
in  fury  and  like  a  man  in  despair.  Saint  Pouenge,  and  his  con- 
stant familiars,  were  frightened,  and,  in  their  disquietude,  sought 
to  learn  what  had  happened.  At  last  he  told  them,  said  he  was 
lost,  and  that  for  a  few  inches  the  king  forgot  all  his  services 
which  had  led  to  so  many  conquests  ;  but  he  would  arrange  it, 
he  would  bring  about  a  war  that  would  force  him  to  be  employed 
and  quit  the  trowel.     Then  he  burst  out  in  reproaches  and  fury. 

"He  kept  his  word.  He  caused  a  war  to  grow  out  of  the 
aflfair  of  the  double  election  in  Cologne,  of  the  Prince,  of  Bavaria 
and  Cardinal  Furstemberg,  and  confirmed  it  by  carrying  the 
flames  into  the  Palatinate." — St.  Simon,  ''  Memoircs''  1709. 

Louis  XIV.  constantly  visited  the  Grand  Trianon,  with 
which  for  many  years  he  was  much  delighted. 


LE    GRAND    TRIANON 


97 


"The  loth  July,  1699,  Louis  XIV.  took  his  stand  on  the  ter- 
race of  Trianon,  looking  on  the  canal,  and  watched  the  embarka- 
tion of  Monseigneur,  Mme  the  Duchesse  de  Bourgogne,  and  all 
the  princesses.  After  supper,  Monseigneur  and  the  Duchesse  de 
Bourgogne  walked  till  two  o'clock  in  the  morning  in  the  gardens, 
and  then  Monseigneur  went  to  bed.  The  Duchesse  de  Bourgogne 
entered  a  gondola  with  some  of  her  ladies,  and  Madame  la  Du- 
chesse in  another,  and  remained  on  the  water  till  sunrise.  Then 
Madame  la  Duchesse  went  to  bed,  but  the  Duchesse  de  Bour- 
gogne watched  till  Mme  de  Maintenon  left  for  Saint-Cyr.  She 
saw  her  mount  her  carriage  at  half-past  seven,  and  then  she  went 
to  her  bed." — Dangeaii,  ^^  M^nioires." 

But,  after  1700,  Louis  XIV.  never  slept  at  Trianon, 
and,  weary  of  his  plaything  here,  turned  all  his  attention 
to  Marly.  Under  Louis  XV.,  however,  the  palace  was 
again  frequently  inhabited. 

"At  first  a  house  of  porcelain  for  a  lunch,  then  enlarged  to 
sleep  in,  finally  a  palace  of  marble  and  porphyr\%  with  delightful 
gardens." — St.  Simon. 

Being  entirely  on  one  floor,  the  Grand  Trianon  con- 
tinued to  be  a  most  uncomfortable  residence,  till  subterra- 
nean passages  for  service  were  added  under  Louis  Philippe, 
who  made  great  use  of  the  palace. 

The  buildings  are  without  character  or  distinction. 
Visitors  have  to  wait  in  the  vestibule  till  a  large  party  is 
formed,  and  are  then  hurried  full  speed  round  the  rooms, 
without  being  allowed  to  linger  for  an  instant.  Amongst 
the  chambers  thus  scampered  through  are  the  Salon  des 
Glaces,  which  was  used  for  the  council  of  ministers  under 
Louis  Philippe,  and  is  furnished  ^7  V Empire;  the  Bedroom 
of  Louis  XIV.,  afterwards  used  by  the  Grand  Dauphin, 
Josephine,  and  Louis  Philippe ;  the  Study  of  Qiiccn  Marie 
Amelie;  the  Salon  de  Familleoi  the  time  of  Louis  Philippe  ; 
the  Antechamber  of  Louis  XIV.,  containing  the  extraordi- 
nary picture  by  Migfiard,  representing  him  as  the  sun — 


g8  DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 

"  le  roi  soleil  "  ;  the  Gallery,  containing  a  group  of  sculpt- 
ure by  Vela,  given  by  the  ladies  of  Milan  to  the  Empress 
Eugenie  after  the  Italian  campaign  ;  the  Salon  Circulaire ; 
the  Salle  de  Billard,  with  portraits  of  Louis  XV.  and  Marie 
Leczinska  by  Va?iloo  ;  the  Salle  de  Malachite,  with  portraits 
of  Louis  XIV.  and  Louis  XV.,  the  Grand  Dauphin  and 
Louis  XVI.,  the  Due  de  Bourbon  and  Due  d'Enghien; 
and  the  rooms  prepared  by  Louis  Philippe  for  the  visit  of 
Victoria  of  England.  The  chapel,  which  is  not  shown, 
was  built  by  Louis  Philippe,  and  his  daughter  Marie  was 
married  there  to  Duke  Alexander  of  Wurtemberg. 

On  emerging  from  the  Grand  Trianon,  we  should  turn 
to  the  left.  A  door  on  the  left  of  the  avenue  is  the  en- 
trance to  the  Miisee  des  Voitures — a  blaze  of  crimson  and 
gold — containing — 

I,  The  gorgeous  coronation  carriage  of  Charles  X.,  built  1825, 
and  used  at  the  baptism  of  the  Prince  Imperial.  2.  The  carriage 
built  1821  for  the  baptism  of  the  Comte  de  Chambord,  and  used 
for  the  marriage  of  Napoleon  III.  3.  La  Topaze,  built  1810  for 
the  marriage  of  Napoleon  I.  and  Marie  Louise.  4.  La  Turquoise, 
built  with  (5)  La  Victoirc  and  (6)  La  Brillaiife,  for  the  coronation 
of  Napoleon  I.  7.  LJ Opale,  which  took  Josephine  to  Malmaison 
after  her  divorce.  Two  Chaises  a  Porteurs  belonged  respectively 
to  Mme  de  Maintenon  and  Mme  du  Barry.  Of  the  four  sledges, 
one,  formed  like  a  shell,  belonged  to  Mme  de  Maintenon,  another, 
also  like  a  shell,  was  built  in  the  time  of  Louis  XV.  for  Mme  du 
Barry,  and  restored  for  Marie  Antoinette.  After  the  Revolution 
•  the  citizen  deputies  of  the  people  besported  themselves,  and  their 
wives  went  to  market,  in  the  royal  carriages.' 

On  reaching  the  grille  of  the  Cour  d^ Honneur  of  the 
Petit  Trianon,  visitors  should  enter  on  the  left  and  ask  for 
the  concierge  for  the  interior  of  the  palace.  But  if  they 
only  wish  to  visit  the  gardens,  they  may  enter  freely  from 
a  door  out  of  the  court  on  the  right  of  the  grille. 

^  During  the  seventy-five  days  of  his  reign,  Ledru  RoUin  had  at  his  orders 
four  carriages,  eighteen  draught  and  saddle  horses,  and  ten  servants. 


LE   PETIT    TRIAXON 


99 


The  Petit  Trianon  was  built  by  Gabriel  for  Louis  XV. 
in  the  botanical  garden  which  Louis  XIV.  had  formed  at 
the  instigation  of  the  Due  d'Ayen.  It  was  intended  as  a 
miniature  of  the  Grand  Trianon,  as  that  palace  had  been  a 
miniature  of  Versailles.  The  palace  was  often  used  by 
Louis  XV.,  who  was  here  first  attacked  by  the  smallpox, 
of  which  he  died.  Louis  XVI.  gave  it  to  Marie  Antoi- 
nette, who  made  its  gardens,  and  whose  happiest  days 
were  spent  here.     Mme  Campan  describes  *'  Marie  Antoi- 


LE   PETIT  TRIANON. 


nette,  vetue  en  blanc,  avec  un  simple  chapeau  de  paille, 
une  legere  badine  a  la  main,  marchant  a  pied,  suivie  d'un 
seul  valet,  dans  les  allees  qui  conduisent  au  Petit-Trianon." 

"  The  king  gave  her  the  Little  Trianon.  From  that  time  she 
occupied  herself  in  embellishing  the  gardens,  without  permitting 
any  alteration  in  the  building  or  any  change  in  the  furniture, 
which  had  become  very  shabbv,  and  which  remained,  in  1789, 
just  as  it  was  in  the  reign  of  Louis  XV.  Everything,  without 
exception,  was  preserved,  and  the  queen  slept  in  a  faded  bed, 
which  had  served  the  Comtesse  du  Barry.  The  reproach  of  ex- 
travagance, generally  made  to  the  queen,  is  the  most  inconceiv- 


lOO  DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 

able  of  the  popular  errors  which  have  been  established  in  the 
world  respecting  her  character.  She  had  the  very  opposite  fault, 
and  I  can  prove  that  she  often  carried  economy  as  far  as  real 
shabbiness,  especially  in  a  sovereign.  She  took  a  great  fancy  to 
her  retreat  at  Trianon  ;  she  used  to  go  there  alone,  followed  by  a 
footman,  but  found  there  attendants  to  receive  her,  a  concierge 
and  his  wife,  who  took  the  place  of  a  maid,  wardrobe-women, 
pages,  &c. 

"The  queen  sometimes  remained  an  entire  month  at  the 
Little  Trianon,  and  established  there  all  the  usages  of  its  etiquette. 
When  she  entered  her  saloon,  the  ladies  did  not  quit  the  piano 
or  their  tapestry  work,  and  the  men  did  not  interrupt  their  games 
of  billiards  or  backgammon.  There  was  little  accommodation 
in  the  Trianon.  Mme  Elizabeth  used  to  accompany  the  queen 
there,  but  the  ladies  of  honor  and  the  ladies  of  the  palace  had 
no  establishment ;  according  to  the  invitations  sent  out  by  the 
queen,  guests  came  from  Versailles  at  dinner-time.  The  king 
and  the  princes  went  regularly  to  supper.  A  robe  of  white  per- 
cale, a  gauze  fichu,  a  straw  hat,  formed  the  attire  of  the  prin- 
cesses ;  the  pleasure  of  running  about  the  buildings  of  the  vil- 
lage, of  seeing  the  cows  milked,  of  fishing  in  the  lake,  delighted 
the  queen,  and  every  year  she  displayed  more  aversion  for  the 
stately  journeys  to  Marly. 

"The  idea  of  playing  comedy,  as  was  done  then  in  almost 
all  country  houses,  followed  the  idea  the  queen  had  had  of  living 
at  Trianon  without  pageantr}'.  It  was  agreed  that,  excepting  M. 
the  Comte  d'Artois,  no  young  man  should  be  admitted  into  the 
troupe,  and  that  there  should  be  no  spectators  but  the  king.  Mon- 
sieur, and  the  princesses  not  in  the  play,  but  that,  to  animate  the 
actors  a  little,  the  first  boxes  might  be  occupied  by  the  queen's 
readers  and  maids,  with  their  children  and  sisters.  This  formed 
about  two  score  persons." — Mine  Campan,  '^Meinoiresy 

The  Petit  Trianon  is  a  very  small  and  very  iinassuming 
country  house.  Mme  de  Maintenon  describes  it  in  June 
as  "  un  palais  enchante'  et  parfume."  Its  pretty  simple 
rooms  are  only  interesting  from  their  associations.  The 
furniture  is  mostly  of  the  time  of  Louis  XVI.  The  stone 
stair  has  a  handsome  iron  balustrade;  the  salons  are 
panelled  in  white.     Here  Marie  Antoinette  sat  to  Mme 


LE   PETIT    TRIANON  tot 

Lebrun  for  the  picture  in  which  she  is  represented  with 
her  children.  In  the  Salle  a  majigcr  is  a  secretaire  given 
to  Louis  XVI.  by  the  States  of  Eyrgond^^-,  a'.id  portraits  of 
the  king  and  Marie  Antoinette.  The'  Cahmet  de  Travail 
of  the  queen  has  a  cabinet  givSn  to  lie r  cjr/,  h£r'i>i2r'riaLg'i  b,y 
the  town  of  Paris ;  in  the  Salle  de  Reception  are  four  pict- 
ures by  Watteau ;  the  Boudoir  has  a  Sevres  bust  of  the 
queen ;  in  the  Chambre  a  coucher  is  the  queen's  bed,  and  a 
portrait  of  the  Dauphin  by  Lebrun.  These  simple  rooms 
are  a  standing  defence  of  the  queen  from  the  false  accusa- 
tions brought  against  her  at  the  Revolution  as  to  her  ex- 
travagance in  the  furnishing  of  the  Petit  Trianon.  Speak- 
ing of  her  happy  domestic  life  here,  Mme  Lebrun  says,  "I 
do  not  believe  Queen  Marie  Antoinette  ever  allowed  an 
occasion  to  pass  by  without  saying  an  agreeable  thing  to 
those  who  had  the  honor  of  being  near  her." 

In  the  Chapel  (only  shown  on  special  application)  is  a 
picture  by  Vien  of  St.  Louis  and  Marguerite  de  Provence 
visiting  St.  Thibault.  In  the  early  years  of  Bonaparte's 
consulship,  the  Petit  Trianon  was  turned  into  an  inn.  After 
the  Restoration,  Louis  XVIII.  often  came  here  for  the 
day  from  Paris,  and  the  gouty  king  would  order  himself  to 
be  carried  through  the  rooms  of  many  associations. 

"The  Little  Trianon,  a  caprice  of  the  queen,  still  filled  with 
her  games,  her  idyls,  her  beaut}-,  her  voice,  and  the  pleasures  in 
which  Louis  XVIIL  had  mingled  in  his  youth,  drew  tears  from 
him.  He  recalled  to  mind  the  spectacles,  concerts,  and  illumi- 
nations, the  loves  of  these  delightful  gardens,  whose  trees  had 
spread  their  first  shadows  over  the  steps  of  the  young  court.  He 
discovered  in  this  royal  cottage,  the  whole  soul  of  a  princess 
who  longed  for  obscurity  to  hide  her  happiness,  even  to  the  bed 
of  simple  muslin  of  the  Queen  of  France,  where  she  dreamed 
of  romantic  felicity  on  the  eve  of  the   scaffold." — Lamartine. 

In  the  pleasant  gardens,  Le  Temple  d'Amour^  surrounded 


102  DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 

by  water,  contains  a  statue  by  Bouchardofi.  A  little  further 
on,  several  cottages  compose  the  Ha7neau  where  the  queen 
kept;hfeV-cows'-a'-id  -jT^ultty,  and  near  which  she  planted  a 
weeping  willow  in  the  year  in  which  she  left  Versailles  for 
e<fer.;,''T'h^''buil'diligsrri&:lain  'the  names  she  gave  them — the 
Maiso7i  du  Mamie?',  once  inhabited  by  the  Comte  de  Pro- 
vence;  the  Bergerie ;  the  Mais  on  du  Seig7ieur  (Louis 
XVI.);  the  Maison  du  Bailli  (Comte  de  Polignac) ;  Le 
Presbytere  (Cardinal  de  Rohan)  ;  the  Maison  du  Garde 
(Comte  d'Artois).  Close  to  the  lake  is  the  Laiterie  )ovci^di 
to  the  Tour  de  Marlborough.  Near  another  little  lake  is 
\hi^Salo7i  de Musique,  an  octagonal  building  with  four  doors 
and  windows. 

One  of  the  prettiest  fetes  given  by  Marie  Antoinette  at 
the  Petit  Trianon  was  the  illumination  of  the  gardens 
during  the  visit  of  her  brother,  the  Emperor  Joseph  II. 

"The  art  with  which  the  English  garden  was  not  illuminated 
but  lighted,  produced  a  charming  effect  ;  the  terrifies,  hidden  by 
planks  painted  green,  lighted  up  all  the  clumps  of  shrubs  or 
flowers,  bringing  out  their  various  tints  in  the  most  varied  and 
agreeable  manner  ;  some  hundreds  of  fagots,  kindled  in  the  moat, 
behind  the  Temple  of  Love,  diffused  a  brightness  which  rendered 
that  point  the  most  brilliant  in  the  garden.  Besides,  these  even- 
ings had  nothing  remarkable  but  what  they  owed  to  the  good  taste 
of  the  artists  ;  still  it  was  much  talked  of.  The  grounds  did  not 
permit  the  admission  of  a  great  part  of  the  court ;  those  not  invited 
were  discontented,  and  the  people,  Avhich  pardons  only  fetes  which 
it  shares,  had  a  great  part  in  the  malevolent  exaggerations  of  the 
cost  of  this  little  fete,  which  was  put  at  such  a  ridiculous  price, 
that  the  fagots  burned  in  the  moat  seemed  to  have  required  the 
destruction  of  a  whole  forest.  The  queen,  hearing  these  reports, 
desired  to  Icnow  precisel)'^  how  much  wood  was  burned  ;  it  was 
found  that  fifteen  hundred  fagots  had  sufficed  to  keep  the  fire 
burning  till  four  in  the  morning." — Mme  Campan. 

Near  the  Salon  de  Musique  is  the  Salle  de  Spectacle  in 


GARDENS  OF    THE  PETIT    TRIANON 


103 


which  Marie  Antoinette  acted  in  the  Devifi  dti  Village  and 
the  Barbier  dc  Seville. 

"  Madame,  the  Comtesse  de  Provence,  refused  to  play  in  the 
comedy,  at  the  theatre  of  the  Little  Trianon  ;  she  said  it  Avould 
be  a  breach  of  etiquette. 

"  '  But  I  play  ;  I,  myself,'  said  the  queen,  '  and  the  king  has 
no  objection.' 

"  '  Madame,'  replied  her  sister-in-law,  '  it  is  here  just  as  Bos- 
suet  said  it  was  in  the  case  of  theatres,  great  examples  for,  good 
reasons  against.  A  princess  of  Savoy  must  never  shrink  from 
great  examples  in  default  of  good  reasons.' 


FARM   OF   MARIE   ANTOINETTE. 


'*  '  Brother,'  said  the  queen  with  animation,  calling  the  Comte 
dArtois,  as  it  were,  to  her  aid,  *  come  and  take  the  side  of  Ma- 
dame, and  let  us  prostrate  ourselves  before  the  eternal  grandeur 
of  the  house  of  Savoy.  I  thought,  up  till  now,  that  the  house  of 
Austria  was  the  first.    .   .   .  ' 

"  '  Ladies,'  broke  in  the  Comte  dArtois,  '  I  believed  just  the 
contrary  ;  I  believed,  for  example,  that  you  had  a  serious  dis- 
pute, but  as  I  see  it  turning  to  jest,  I  think  I  had  better  not 
meddle  in  it.'  " — Souvenirs  de  la  Marquise  de  Cr^qiii. 

The  Duchesse  d'Abrantes  gives  ns  a  pretty  picture  of 
Napoleon  L  playing  with  the  one-year-old  King  of  Rome 


I04 


DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 


on  the  lawn  at  Trianon,  giving  him  his  sword  to  ride 
upon. 

There  is  not  much  of  importance  in  the  town  of  Ver- 
sailles— La  Cite  dii  Grand  Roi.  If  the  visitor  leaves  the 
gardens  by  the  gate  of  the  Orangerie  at  the  foot  of  the 
Escalicr  des  Cent  Marches,  he  will  find  himself  facing  the 
Rue  de  I'Orangerie,  which  will  lead  him  to  (right)  the 
Cathedral  of  St.  Louis,  containing  a  monument  by  Pra- 
dier,  erected  by  the  town  of  Versailles  to  the  Due  de  Berry, 

Returning  to  the  Rue  de  I'Orangerie,  and  turning  left, 
then  following  (right)  the  Rue  de  Satory  to  the  Rue  du 
Vieux- Versailles,  we  find,  on  the  right,  the  Rue  du  Jeu  de 
Paume,  on  the  right  of  which  is  the  entrance  of  the  famous 
Salle  du  Jeu  de  Patmie.  Over  the  entrance  is  inscribed  : 
"  Dans  ce  Jeu  de  paume  le  xx  juin  mdcclxxxix,  les  de'- 
pute's  du  peuple  repousses  du  lieu  ordinaire  de  leurs 
seances,  jurerent  de  ne  point  se  separer  qu'ils  n'eussent 
donne  une  constitution  a  la  France.  lis  ont  tenu  parole." 
The  famous  oath  of  the  Jeu  de  Paume  is  engraved  under  a 
portico  behind  a  statue  of  Bailly,  and  round  the  hall  are 
inscribed  the  names  of  the  700  who  signed  the  proces  verbal 
of  the  meeting  of  June  20,  1789.  In  1883  the  hall  was 
turned  into  a  Musee  de  la  Revolution  Pran false. 

"  Memories  of  the  monarchy  and  the  aristocracy  throb  in  the 
long  streets  of  the  parishes  of  St.  Louis  and  of  Notre  Dame, 
where  every  step  recalls  a  famous  name,  evokes  an  original  figure 
or  revives  a  strange  anecdote.  No  town  in  France,  except  Paris, 
offers,  in  the  same  degree,  the  attraction  of  a  journey  in  the  past, 
and  among  things  of  the  past." — Barron,  ''Les  environs  de  Parish 

The  ever-extending  limits  of  the  town  have  now  em- 
braced the  villa  of  Clagny,  which  Louis  XIV.  gave  to 
Mme  de  Montespan,  It  was  thither  that  she  retired,  and 
watched  the   "  conversion "   of  Louis  XIV.    taking  place 


CLAGNY  105 

under  the  influence  of  Mme  de  Maintenon,  Bossuet,  and 
Bourdaloue. 

"  Mon   pere,   dit  un   jour    Louis    XIV.    a   Bourdaloue,   vous 
devez  etre  content  de  moi  :   Mme  de  Montespan  est  a  Clagny. 

"  —  Oui,  sire,  repondit  Bourdaloue  ;  mais  Dieu  serait  plus 
satisfait  si  Clagny  6tait  a  soixante-dix  lieues  de  Versailles."— 
Hequct, 


III. 

ST.   GERMAIN. 

THERE  are  two  ways  of  reaching  St.  Germain,  i.  By  rail 
from  the  Gave  St.  Lazare.  Express,  30  min.  ;  slow  trains, 
50  min.  Trains  every  hour,  at  25  min.  before  the  hour.  {Single — 
First,  I  f.  65  c.  ;  second,  i  f.  35  c.  ;  Return — First,  3  f.  30  c.  ; 
second,  2  f.  70  c.)  2.  By  the  steamer  Le  Totiriste,  on  the  Seine  ; 
carriages  at  the  landing-place. 

The  train  passes — 

5  k.  Asnieres. — Its  XVIII.  c.  chateau  was  transformed 
into  a  restaurant  in  1848. 

\2  k.  Nanterre — a  large  village  celebrated  because  St. 
Germain  of  Auxerre,  passing  on  his  way  to  England  with 
St.  Loup,  Bishop  of  Troyes  {c.  429),  remarked  the  shep- 
herdess Genevieve  amongst  the  crowd  assembled  to  see 
him,  and  called  her  to  a  life  of  perpetiial  virginity,  con- 
secrating her  to  the  service  of  God,  and  giving  her  a 
copper  cross  to  wear.  Here,  while  she  was  yet  a  child, 
her  mother  is  said  to  have  been  smitten  with  blindness, 
for  giving  her  a  box  on  the  ear  in  a  passion,  but  to  have 
been  restored  by  her  prayers.  Then  St.  Genevieve,  hav- 
ing drawn  water  from  the  well  of  Nanterre,  bathed  her 
mother's  eyes  with  it,  upon  which  she  saw  as  clearly  as 
before.  From  this  time  the  well  is  said  to  have  preserved 
its  miraculous  powers,  and  20,000  pilgrims  come  to  it 
annually.     Queen  Anne  of  Austria,  in  despair  at  not  be- 


NANTERRE 


107 


coming  a  mother,  came  to  drink  of  its  waters,  and  the 
result  was  Louis  XIV.  The  well  is  in  the  Garden  of  the 
Presbytery^  which  can  be  entered  through  the  Church  of 
St.  Maurice,  dating  from  XIII.  c,  but  spoilt  by  restorations. 
The  chapel  of  St.  Genevieve  is  covered  with  ex-votos.  A 
monument  commemorates  Charles  Le  Roy,  "  horloger  du 
roi,"  1 77 1.     The  Gateaux  de  Nanterre  are  celebrated,  and 


WELL  OF  ST,  GENEVIEVE,  NANTERRE. 


have  an  immense  sale  to  the  pilgrims.  The  fete  of  the 
Rosiere,  when  the  girl  who  is  esteemed  the  most  virtuous 
in  the  town  is  led  in  procession,  publicly  eulogized,  and 
crowned  with  roses,  is  still  observed  every  Whit-Monday 
in  this  church. 

13  /^.  Rueil.—K  tramway  to  the  village,  and  to  Mal- 
maison  and  Marly.     (See  Ch.  IV.) 


io8  DAYS  NEAR   PARIS 

\^  k.  Chatoii—sNhQXQ  Soufflot  built  a  chateau,  which 
still  exists,  for  Bertin,  minister  of  Louis  XV,  Hither,  to 
another  chateau  (now  destroyed),  near  the  Avenue  de 
Croissy,  the  hated  Chancellor  Maupeou  retired  after  the 
king's  death,  and  the  people  sang  under  his  windows — 

"  Sur  la  route  de  Chatou 
En  foule  on  s'achemine, 
Et  c'est  pour  voir  la  mine 
Du  Chancelier  Maupeou 

Sur  la  rou- 

Sur  la  rou- 
Sur  la  route  de  Chatou." 

At  the  Revolution,  Chatou  belonged  to  the  Comte 
d'Artois,  and  was  sold  as  national  property.  It  was  at 
Chatou  that  Louis  XIV.  met  the  exiled  Queen  Mary 
Beatrice,  on  her  arrival  from  England.  There  are  pretty 
views  upon  the  river. 

"  C'est  pres  du  pont  de  Chatou 
Qu'on  verrait,  sans  peine, 
Couler  ses  jours  jusqu'au  bout 
Au  gre  de  la  Seine." 

Desuoyers. 

i<)  k.  Le  Vesinet — possessing  a  race-course,  and  the 
Asile  de  Vesifief,  a  succursale  of  the  Paris  hospitals  for 
female  convalescents. 

In  the  forest  of  Ve'sinet  or  Echauffour,  Louis  XIV, 
used  to  go  hawking  with  black  falcons. 

"The  king  went  to  fly  falcons  at  the  plain  of  Vesinet.  The 
King  of  England  and  the  Prince  of  Wales  were  there,  but  the 
queen  was  not  visible  ;  she  had  been  unwell  for  some  days. 
Madame  and  Mme  la  Duchesse  were  on  horseback.  A  black 
hawk  was  taken,  and  the  king  ordered  a  gratuity  of  600  livres  to 
the  master  of  the  falcons  ;  he  gives  as  much  every  year  for  the 
first  black  hawk  taken  in  his  presence  ;  otherwise,  he  gives  the 
horse  on  which  he  rides  and  his  dressing-gown." — Dangeau, 
''M/moires,"  24  April,  1698. 


ST.    GERMAIN-EN-LA  YE  109 

\Z  k.  Le  Pecq  (once  Alpicum,  then  Aupec) — where 
rOrme  de  Sully  near  the  Seine,  is  the  only  tree  remaining 
of  many  planted  by  the  minister  of  Henry  IV.  A  house 
is  inscribed  "  Pavilion  Sully,  1603." 

The  Villa  of  Monte  Cristo  was  built  by  Alexander  Du- 
mas ;  its  gate  is  inscribed  "  Monte  Cristo,  propriete'  his- 
torique,"  but  it  has  long  since  been  sold.  There  is  an 
atmospheric  railway  from  Le  Pecq  up  the  wooded  hill 
to— 

2\k.     St.  Gerjnain-en-Laye. 

Hotels:  du  Pavilion  Henri  IV.,  in  a  delightful  situa- 
tion on  the  terrace,  and  with  a  most  beautiful  view ;  du 
Pavilion  Louis  XIV.,  Place  Pontoise ;  de  rAnge-Gardien, 
Rue  de  Paris  ;  du  Prifice  Galles,  Rue  de  la  Paroisse.  Res- 
taurant Grenier,  close  to  the  station;  very  dear:  many 
other  restaurants. 

The  first  royal  chateau  of  St.  Germain  was  built  by 
Louis  le  Gros  in  the  XH.  c,  near  a  monastery  belonging 
to  St.  Germain  des  Pres  at  Paris.  Both  palace  and  mon- 
astery were  burnt  by  the  Black  Prince.  Charles  V.  began 
to  rebuild  the  palace  in  1367,  and  it  was  continued  by 
Frangois  I,  Within  its  walls  Henri  IL  and  Catherine  de 
Medicis  received  the  six-year-old  Mary  Stuart  from  the 
hands  of  the  Comte  de  Breze,  who  had  been  sent  to  Scot- 
land to  fetch  her,  as  the  bride  of  their  son,  afterwards  Fran- 
cois IL 

The  old  palace  was  like  a  fortress,  and  Henri  IV., 
wishing  for  a  more  luxurious  residence,  built  a  vast  palace 
which  occupied  the  site  of  the  existing  terrace.  Beneath 
it  a  beautiful  garden,  adorned  with  grottoes,  statues,  and 
fountains  in  the  Italian  style,  descended  in  an  amphi- 
theatre as  far  as  the  bank  of  the  Seine.  The  palace  and 
garden  of  Henri  IV.  have  entirely  disappeared.     The  for- 


no  DAYS  NEAR  PARIS 

mer  was  destroyed  by  the  Comte  d'Artois,  afterwards 
Charles  X.  In  the  older  chateau  Louis  XIV.  was  born, 
and  in  the  second  chateau  Louis  XIII.  died,  after  a  linger- 
ing illness,  May  14,  1643. 

"  He  spoke  of  death  with  most  Christian  resignation  ;  he  was 
so  well  prepared  that  at  the  sight  of  St.  Denis  from  the  windows 
of  the  new  chateau  of  St.  Germain,  where  he  was,  so  as  to  be  in 
better  air  than  in  the  old  one,  he  pointed  out  the  road  to  St.  Denis, 
by  which  his  body  was  to  be  conveyed  ;  he  indicated  a  place 
where  the  road  was  bad,  and  advised  that  it  be  avoided,  for  fear 
the  carriage  should  stick  in  the  mud.  I  heard  say,  even,  that 
during  his  illness  he  set  to  music  the  De proftmdis  which  was 
sung  in  his  room  immediately  after  his  death,  as  is  the  custom  as 
soon  as  the  kings  are  dead." — Memoires  de  Mile  de  Montpensier. 

Here,  six  years  later,  Anne  of  Austria,  flying  from 
Paris  with  her  two  sons,  before  the  rising  of  the  Fronde, 
took  refuge  with  all  the  royal  family  except  the  Duchesse 
de  Longueville,  bivouacking  upon  straw  in  the  unfurnished 
palace,  whilst  waiting  for  troops  to  come  from  the  army  in 
Flanders. 

"  The  king  often  wanted  necessaries.  The  pages  of  the 
chamber  were  dismissed  because  he  could  not  support  them.  At 
the  same  time  the  aunt  of  Louis  XIV.,  the  daughter  of  Henry  the 
Great,  wife  of  the  King  of  England,  a  fugitive  in  Paris,  v/as  re- 
duced to  extreme  poverty  ;  and  her  daughter,  since  married  to 
the  brother  of  Louis  XIV.,  remained  in  bed,  not  being  able  to 
have  a  fire,  without  the  people  of  Paris,  drunk  with  fury,  pa)ang 
any  attention  to  the  afflictions  of  so  many  royal  personages." — 
Voltaire,  "  Siecle  de  Louis  XIV." 

Louis  XIV.,  who  added  the  five  pavilions  at  the  angles 
of  the  older  and  still  existing  palace,  at  one  time  thought 
of  rebuilding  the  whole  on  a  much  more  magnificent  scale ; 
one  fatal  obstacle  prevented  him :  from  its  lofty  site  he 
could  see  St.  Denis,  his  future  burial-place ! 

"  Saint  Germain,  unique  in  combining  the  marvels  of  a  wide 
view,  the  immense  level  of  a  continuous  forest,  unique,  too,  by 


CHATEAU  DE    ST.    GERMAIN 


III 


the  beauty  of  its  trees,  soil,  situation,  the  advantages  of  spring 
water  at  that  elevation,  the  admirable  gardens,  heights  and  ter- 
races which,  one  above  another,  conducted  one  with  ease  over 
the  widest  expanse  that  one  could  wish,  the  charms  and  con- 
venience of  the  Seine,  finally  a  town  quite  complete  which  its  po- 
sition itself  created,  all  was  abandoned  for  Versailles,  the  dullest 
and  most  ungrateful  of  all  spots." — St.  Siinoti. 

After  the  English  Revolution  of  1688,  James  II.  found 
at  St.  Germain  the  generous  hospitality  of  Louis  XIV. 


ChAtEAU   of  ST.    GERMAIN. 


He  lived  here  for  thirteen  years  as  the  guest  of  the  King 
of  France,  wearing  always  a  penitential  chain  round  his 
waist  (like  James  IV.  of  Scotland)  and  daily  praying  God 
to  pardon  the  ingratitude  of  his  daughters,  Mary  and 
Anne.  Here  his  youngest  child  Louisa — "  la  Consola- 
trice  " — was  born,  and  here,  as  the  choir  in  the  Chapel 
Royal  were  singing  the  anthem.  "Lord,  remember  what  is 
come  upon  us,  consider  and  behold  our  reproach  "  (Sep- 


112  DAYS  NEAR  PARIS 

tember  2,  1701),  he  sank  into  the  Queen's   arms  in  the 
swoon  from  which  he  never  recovered. 

"  loth  Jan.,  1689. — The  king  acted  divinel)'  towards  their 
English  Majesties  ;  for  is  it  not  to  be  the  image  of  the  Almighty, 
to  sustain  a  king  expelled,  betrayed  and  abandoned?  The  noble 
soul  of  the  king  was  delighted  to  play  this  part.  He  met  the 
queen  with  all  his  household  and  a  hundred  six-horse  coaches. 
When  he  perceived  the  carriage  of  the  Prince  of  Wales,  he  de- 
scended and  embraced  him  tenderly;  then  he  ran  to  meet  the 
queen,  who  had  left  her  carriage  ;  he  saluted  her,  conversed  some 
time,  placed  her  at  his  right  in  his  carriage,  presented  to  her 
Monseigneur  and  Monsieur,  who  were  also  in  the  carriage,  and 
took  her  to  St.  Germain,  where  she  was  provided  like  the  queen 
with  all  sorts  of  requisites,  among  them  being  a  very  rich  cash- 
box  with  6,000  livtes  d'or.  The  next  day  there  was  the  arrival  of 
the  King  of  England  at  St.  Germain,  where  the  king  waited  for 
him  ;  he  was  late  in  arriving  ;  the  king  went  to  the  end  of  the 
guard-room  to  meet  him  ;  the  King  of  England  kissed  him 
heartily  as  if  he  would  have  embraced  his  knees ;  the  king 
stopped  him,  and  embraced  him  cordially  three  or  four  times. 
They  conversed  in  a  low  tone  for  a  quarter  of  an  hour  ;  the  king 
presented  to  him  Monseigneur,  Monsieur,  the  Princes  of  the 
blood,  and  Cardinal  de  Bonzi ;  he  led  him  to  the  apartment  of 
the  queen,  who  could  scarce  retain  her  tears.  After  a  conversa- 
tion of  some  minutes,  his  Majesty  conducted  them  to  the  Prince 
of  Wales,  where  they  conversed  for  some  time,  and  left  them 
there,  refusing  to  be  escorted  back,  and  saying  to  the  king  :  '  Here 
is  your  house  ;  when  I  shall  come  here,  you  will  do  me  the  hon- 
ors, and  I  shall  do  them  when  you  come  to  Versailles.'  Next 
day,  which  was  )'esterday,  Mme  the  Dauphiness  went  there,  and 
all  the  court.  I  do  not  know  how  they  regulated  the  seats  of  the 
princesses,  for  they  had  them  arranged  as  at  the  court  of  Spain  ; 
and  the  queen-mother  of  England  was  treated  as  a  daughter  of 
France.  The  king  sent  10,000  livrcs  dor  to  the  King  of  England  ; 
the  latter  seemed  aged  and  tired  ;  the  queen  was  there  ;  her  eyes, 
that  had  been  shedding  tears,  were  beautiful  and  black  ;  her  com- 
plexion good,  but  her  mouth  rather  large  ;  her  teeth  good,  her 
figure  good,  and  she  had  a  deal  of  wit ;  all  this  rendered  her 
pleasing.  Here  is  matter  for  you  to  subsist  on  in  public  conver- 
sation. 

"  17th  January,  1689.     The  court  of  England  is  quite  estab- 


CHATEAU  DE   ST.    GERM  AIM 


113 


lished  at  St.  Germain  ;  they  only  wish  for  50,000  francs  a  month, 
and  their  court  is  on  that  footing.  The  queen  pleases  much,  the 
king  converses  pleasantly  with  her;  she  has  a  just,  unaffected 
disposition.  The  king  desired  Mme  the  Dauphiness  to  pay  the 
first  visit  ;  she  kept  saying  she  zaas  sick,  and  this  queen  went  to 
see  her,  three  days  ago,  dressed  to  perfection,  a  robe  of  black 
velvet,  a  handsome  skirt,  head  well  dressed  ;  a  figure  like  the 
Princess  de  Conti,  much  majesty  ;  the  king  went  to  receive  her  at 
her  carriage  ;  she  went  first  to  his  apartments,  where  she  had  a 
fauteuil  above  the  king's  ;  she  was  there  half  an  hour,  then  he 
escorted  her  to  the  Dauphiness,  who  was  up  ;  this  caused  some 
surprise.  The  queen  said  to  her,  *  Madame,  I  thought  3'ou  were 
in  bed.'  '  Madame,' replied  the  Dauphiness,  '  I  resolved  to  rise 
to  receive  the  honor  your  Majesty  has  paid  me.'  The  king  left 
them,  because  the  Dauphiness  has  no  fauteuil  in  his  presence. 
The  queen  took  a  good  place  in  a  fauteuil,  Madame  on  her  left, 
three  oiher  fauteui Is  for  the  three  little  princes  ;  they  talked  away 
for  half  an  hour  ;  there  were  a  good  many  duchesses,  the  court 
very  large  ;  at  last,  she  departed  ;  the  king  was  notified  and  led 
her  to  her  carriage.  He  returned  and  praised  the  queen  highly  ; 
he  said,  '  This  is  as  a  queen  should  be  both  in  mind  and  body, 
holding  her  court  with  dignity.'  He  admired  her  courage  in  ad- 
versity, and  her  passion  for  her  husband,  for  she  did,  in  truth, 
love  him. 

"2nd  February,  1CS9.  The  Queen  of  England  has  all  the 
look,  if  God  pleased,  of  preferring  to  reign  in  the  good  king- 
dom of  England,  where  the  court  is  large  and  noble,  than  to  be  at 
St.  Germain,  although  laden  with  the  king's  heroic  goodness.  As 
for  the  King  of  England,  he  seems  content ;  and  it  is  for  that,  that 
he  is  here. 

"  28th  February,  1689.  It  is  a  fact  that  the  King  of  England 
departed  this  morning  to  go  to  Ireland,  where  he  is  impatiently 
expected  ;  he  will  be  better  there  than  here.  The  king  gave  him 
arms  for  ten  thousand  men  ;  when  his  English  Majesty  said  fare- 
well, he  concluded  by  saying,  with  a  laugh,  that  his  own  personal 
arms  were  the  only  things  forgotten  ;  the  king  gave  him  his  ;  our 
heroes  of  romance  could  not  have  shown  more  gallantry.  What 
will  not  this  brave  and  unfortunate  king  do  with  arms  that 
are  always  victorious  ?  He  has  then  the  casque  and  cuirass  of 
Renaud,  of  Amadis,  and  of  all  our  paladins  of  fame  ;  I  will  not 
say  of  Hector,  for  he  was  unfortunate.  There  is  not  a  single 
thing  that  the  king  did  not  offer  him,  generosity  and  magnanimity 


114  BAYS  NEAR  PARIS 

can  go  no  farther.  .  .  .  The  queen  has  gone  into  retirement  at 
Poissi  with  her  son  ;  she  will  be  near  the  king,  and  all  news  ;  she 
is  overcome  with  grief  .   .   .   this  princess  excites  great  pity. 

"  2nd  March,  16S9.  The  king  said  to  the  King  of  England,  at 
parting  :  '  Monsieur,  I  am  sorry  to  see  you  go  ;  still,  I  hope  never 
to  see  you  again  ;  but  if  you  do  return,  be  assured  that  you  will 
find  me  just  the  same  as  you  leave  me.'  Could  one  say  anything 
better?  The  king  heaped  on  him  everything,  great  and  small; 
two  millions,  ships,  frigates,  troops,  officers.  ...  I  come  to  small 
things,  toilet  sets,  camp  beds,  services  of  silver  and  plate,  arms 
for  himself,  which  were  the  king's  own,  arms  for  the  troops  in 
Ireland  ;  the  arms  that  go  with  him  are  considerable  ;  lastly,  gen- 
erosity, magnificence,  and  magnanimity  have  been  never  so  dis- 
played as  on  this  occasion.  The  king  did  not  wish  the  queen  to 
go  to  Poissi  ;  she  will  see  few  people  ;  there  will  be  tears,  cries, 
sobs,  fainting-fits  ;  that  is  easy  to  understand.  He  is  now  where 
he  ought  to  be,  he  has  a  good  cause,  he  protects  our  holy  religion, 
he  must  conquer  or  die,  for  he  has  courage." 

After  the  king's  death  his  widow,  Mary  Beatrice,  con- 
tinued for  seventeen  years  to  reside  at  St.  Germain.  Here 
she  witnessed  the  death  of  her  darling  daughter,  Louisa, 
April  18,  1 7 12;  and  here,  in  the  thirtieth  year  of  her 
exile,  the  queen  herself  passed  away  in  the  presence  of 
thirty  Jacobite  exiles,  of  whom  she  was  the  best  friend  and 
protectress. 

"  The  Queen  of  England  died  May  7,  after  ten  or  twelve  days' 
illness.  Her  life,  from  her  coming  to  France  till  the  end  of  1688, 
was  nothing  but  a  series  of  misfortunes,  heroically  borne  to  the 
end,  in  submission  to  God,  contempt  of  the  world,  penitence, 
prayer,  and  continual  good  works,  and  all  the  virtues  that  make 
a  saint.  With  much  natural  sensibility,  she  blended  much  wit 
and  natural  pride,  which  she  knew  how  to  restrain  and  keep  down 
constantly  ;  she  had  the  grandest  air  in  the  world,  at  once  majestic 
and  imposing,  and  with  all  was  gentle  and  modest.  Her  death 
was  as  saintly  as  her  life.  Of  the  600,000  livres  which  the  king 
gave  her  yearly,  she  saved  all  to  support  the  poor  English  who 
filled  St.  Germain.  Her  corpse  was  carried,  two  days  afterwards, 
to  the  Filles  de  St.  Marie  of  Chaillot,  where  it  was  deposited,  and 
where  she  often  went  into  retreat." — St. Simon. 


CHATEAU  DE   ST.    GERMAIN  ng 

"8th  May,  1718.  Yesterday  morning  at  seven  o'clock,  the 
good,  pious,  virtuous  Queen  of  England  died  at  St.  Germain. 
She  is,  for  sure,  in  heaven  ;  she  did  not  keep  a  penny  for  herself, 
she  gave  all  to  the  poor,  and  maintained  whole  families.  She 
never  in  all  her  life  spoke  ill  of  any  one,  and  when  they  wished  to 
tell  her  anything  about  this  person  or  that  person,  she  was  wont 
to  say,  '  If  it  is  any  ill  about  any  one,  I  pray  you,  do  not  tell  it  to 
me.  I  do  not  like  stories  that  attack  reputations.'  She  bore  her 
misfortunes  with  the  greatest  patience  in  the  world,  not  from 
want  of  spirit  ;  she  was  very  intelligent,  polished  and  win- 
ning. .  .  .  She  always  made  the  highest  eulogies  on  the  Princess 
of  Wales." — Correspojidance  de  Madame. 

In  accordance  with  the  last  wish  of  the  queen,  the 
Regent  d'Orleans  allowed  her  ladies  and  many  other  noble 
British  emigrants  to  continue  in  the  palace^  where  they  and 
their  descendants  remained  till  the  Revolution  drove  them 
from  their  shelter.  Till  then,  the  room  in  which  Mary 
Beatrice  died  was  kept  as  it  was  in  her  life-time — her 
toilette  table,  with  its  plate,  the  gift  of  Louis  XIV.,  set 
out,  with  four  wax  candles  ready  to  light,  as  if  the  queen's 
return  was  constantly  expected. 

Under  the  Reign  of  Terror  the  name  of  St.  Germain 
was  changed  to  La  Montagne  du  Bel-Air,  and  it  was  in- 
tended to  turn  the  chateau  into  a  prison,  and  to  establish 
a  guillotine  en  permanence  in  its  courtyard,  when  the  fall  of 
Robespierre  intervened. 

In  the  interior  of  the  chateau  the  decorations  and 
chimney-pieces  are  of  brick.  The  rooms  are  now  occupied 
by  a  Musee  des  Antiquites  Natiofiaks,  chiefly  of  very  early 
date,  of  great  interest  to  archaeologists,  and  intended  as  a 
prelude  to  the  collections  of  the  Hotel  de  Cluny.  The 
museum  is  only  open  (free)  on  Sundays,  Tuesdays  and 
Thursdays,  from  11.30  to  5  in  summer,  and  11  to  4  in 
winter. 

In  one  of  the  rooms  on  the  ground  floor  the  primitive 


Ii6  DAYS  NEAR  PARIS 

boats  (pirogues)  hewn  out  of  the  trunk  of  a  tree,  and  found 
in  the  Seine  and  Saone,  are  especially  remarkable.  Other 
halls  are  devoted  to  casts  from  the  Roman  buildings  in 
France  (at  Orange,  St.  Remy,  &c.) ;  relics  of  the  Roman 
legions  in  Gaul ;  funeral  urns  and  tombs  in  brick  and 
lead ;  bronzes  and  pottery.  On  the  upper  floor  are  flint 
weapons,  fossils  found  in  the  caverns  of  France,  and 
models  of  cromlechs,  menhirs,  &c. 

Opposite  the  palace  is  the  parish  Church,  containing 
(ist  chapel,  right)  the  monument  erected  by  Queen  Vic- 
toria to  James  11.  of  England,  "  magnus  prosperis,  ad- 
versis  major,"  and  inscribed  "  Regio  cineri  pietas  regia." 

"  Some  Irish  Jesuits  pretended  that  miracles  were  wrought  at 
his  tomb.  There  was  even  a  talk  of  his  being  canonized  at 
Rome  after  his  death,  the  Rome  that  had  abandoned  him  during 
his  life. 

"Few  princes  were  more  unfortunate  than  he  ;  and  history- 
gives  no  example  of  a  house  so  long  unfortunate.  The  first  of 
the  Scotch  kings,  his  ancestors,  who  bore  the  name  of  James, 
after  being  prisoner  in  England  for  eighteen  years,  was,  with  his 
wife,  murdered  by  his  subjects;  James  II.,  his  son,  was  killed 
at  twenty-nine,  in  combat  with  the  English  ;  James  III.,  impris- 
oned by  his  people,  was  killed  by  the  insurgents,  in  battle  ; 
James  IV.  perished  in  a  battle  he  lost  ;  Marie  Stuart,  his  grand- 
daughter, driven  from  her  throne,  a  fugitive  in  England,  after 
languishing  eighteen  years  in  prison,  was  condemned  to  death 
by  English  judges,  and  beheaded  ;  Charles  I.,  Mary's  grandson, 
King  of  Scotland  and  England,  was  sold  by  the  Scotch,  con- 
demned to  death  by  the  English,  and  died  on  the  scaffold  in 
public  ;  James,  his  son,  seventh  of  the  name,  and  second  of 
England,  of  whom  we  are  speaking,  vv^as  driven  from  the  three 
kingdoms,  and,  as  a  climax  of  misfortune,  the  legitimacy  of  his 
son  was  disputed.  This  son  attempted  to  mount  the  throne  of 
his  fathers,  onl}'  to  cause  his  friends  to  die  by  the  executioner's 
hands  ;  and  we  have  seen  the  prince,  Charles  Edward,  in  vain 
uniting  the  virtues  of  his  fathers  and  the  courage  of  John  So- 
bieski,  his  maternal  ancestor,  perform  exploits  and  meet  mis- 
fortunes most  incredible.     If  anything  justifies  those  who  believe 


TERRA Ck   OF  ST.    GERMAIN  uy 

in  a  fatality  which  nothing  can  escape,  it  is  this  unbroken  series 
of  misfortunes  that  persecutes  the  house  of  Stuart  for  over  three 
hundred  years." — Voltaire,  "  Siecle  dc  Louis  XIV." 

Soon  after  the  death  of  James  II.  Mme  de  Maintenon 
wrote  to  Mme  de  Perou  : — 

"  I  have  not  yet  been  able  to  get  any  relics  of  the  King  of 
England  ;  the  queen  was  in  her  bed,  out  of  condition  to  look  for 
any.  When  the  body  of  this  sainted  king  was  opened,  the  guards 
dipped  their  handkerchiefs  in  his  blood,  and  touched  his  body 
with  their  rosaries.  I  reverence  God's  dispensation  ;  he  per- 
mitted this  prince  to  be  contemned  in  life  in  order  to  make  him 
feel  humiliation,  and  he  glorifies  him  when  he  can  no  longer 
misuse  glory." 

Passing  in  front  of  the  palace,  by  the  gardens  planned 
by  Lenotre,  we  reach  the  Terrace,  constructed  by  Lenotre 
in  1676,  and  one  of  the  finest  promenades  in  Europe. 
The  view  is  most  beautiful  over  the  windings  of  the  Seine 
and  the  rich  green  plain :  on  the  right  are  the  heights  of 
Marly  and  Louveciennes ;  on  the  left  the  hills  of  Mont- 
morency, and  Mont  Valerien  and  Montmartre  in  the  dis- 
tance ;  above  Ve'sinet,  the  cathedral  of  St.  Denis  is  visible 
— "  ce  doigt  silencieux  leve  vers  le  ciel."  James  II.  de- 
clared that  the  view  from  the  terrace  of  St.  Germain  re- 
minded him  of  that  from  Richmond,  and  he  used  to  walk 
here  daily,  leaning,  upon  the  arm  of  Mary  Beatrice.  The 
terrace  extends  from  the  Pavilion  Henri  IV. — which  was 
the  chapel  of  Henri  IV. 's  palace,  and  in  which  Louis  XIV. 
was  baptized — to  the  Grille  Royale,  leading  to  the  forest. 

A  number  of  drives  and  straight  alleys  pierce  the  forest 
of  St.  Germain,  which  is  sandy,  and,  for  the  most  part, 
beautiless.  The  Chateau  du  Val  to  the  right  of  the  Grille 
Royale,  built  at  enormous  cost  by  Mansart  for  Louis  XIV., 
on  the  site  of  a  pavilion  of  Henri  IV.,  is  now  the  property 
of  M.   Fould.     The  Pavilion  de  la  Micette  was  built  by 


li§  DAYS  NEAR   PARIS 

Louis  XIV.  and  Louis  XV L  on  the  ruins  of  a  chateau  of 
Francois  L  Les  Loges  are  a  succursale  to  the  college  for 
the  daughters  of  members  of  the  Legion  of  Honor  at  St. 
Denis.  Near  this  was  a  hermitage  to  which  one  of  Henri 
IV. 's  courtiers  retired  under  Louis  XIII.,  with  a  chapel 
dedicated  to  St.  Fiacre.  The  pilgrimage  to  this  chapel 
has  given  rise  to  the  annual  Fete  des  Loges,  celebrated  on 
the  first  Sunday  after  the  day  of  St.  Fiacre  (August  30) — 
the  most  popular  and  crowded  of  all  fetes  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  Paris.  Le  Chene  des  Loges  is  one  of  the  finest  oaks 
in  France. 

In  the  neighborhood  of  St.  Germain  are  (3  k. )  Marcil 
Marly,  which  has  pleasant  views,  and  (4/^.)  Chambourcy, 
supposed  to  possess  the  relics  of  St.  Clotilde,  wife  of  Clo- 
vis,  whose  fete,  July  3,  attracts  great  crowds.  It  is  a  pleas- 
ant drive  of  13  z^.  from  St.  Germain  to  Versailles.  Public 
carriages  leave  at  10.30,  2.30,  and  7.30,  passing  through 
Rocquencourt,  where  M.  Fould  has  a  chateau. 


IV. 

RUEIL,  MALM  A I  SOX,  AND  MARLY. 

IT  is  only  a  pleasant  afternoon's  drive  through  the  Bois  de 
Boulogne  to  Rueil  and  Malmaison.  If  Marly  be  visited  on 
the  same  day,  it  Avill  be  better  to  take  a  ticket  from  the  Gave  St. 
Lazare  to  Rueil  Ville,  or  tickets  can  be  taken  direct  to  Marly. 


13  /^.  Riieil.  Below  the  station  carriages  are  waiting  on 
a  tramway  to  take  passengers  to — 

\\k.  Rueil  Ville.  This  large  village  was  of  no  impor- 
tance till  Cardinal  de  Richelieu  built  here  a  chateau  like  a 
fortress,  whither  he  often  retired,  and  where  he  condemned 
the  Mare'chal  de  Marillac,  convicted  of  public  peculation, 
to  be  executed  in  the  Place  de  Greve.  Pere  Joseph  died 
here,  December  18,  1638,  when  Richelieu  said,  "Je  perds 
ma  consolation  et  mon  secours,  mon  confident  et  mon 
ami."  The  cardinal  bequeathed  his  chateau  de  Rueil  to 
his  niece,  the  Duchesse  d'Aiguillon,  who  made  it  so 
attractive  that  Louis  XIV.  coveted  it  and  commanded 
Colbert  to  ask  her  to  sell  it  to  him.     She  proudly  replied  : — 

"I  can  never  testify  my  obedience  on  an  occasion  which 
marks  more  my  infinite  respect  for  the  wishes  of  his  Majesty 
than  in  the  matter  in  question,  having  never  thought  of  selling 
Rueil,  nor  having  ever  thought  it  would  be  sold.  I  confess  that  it 
is  dear  to  me  for  many  considerations  ;  the  excessive  expenses  I 
have  incurred  there  evidence  the  attachment  and  affection  I  have 
always  had  for  it  ;  but  the  sacrifice  that  I  shall  make  will  be  the 


120  J^AVS  NEAR   PARIS 

greater  ;  I  hope  that,  presented  by  your  hands,  you  will  cause  its 
merit  to  be  felt. 

"The  king  is  master  ;  and  he  who  gave  me  Rueil  taught  so 
well  to  all  France  the  obedience  she  owes  to  him,  that  his  Majesty 
ought  not  to  doubt  of  mine." 

Louis  XIV.,  however,  found  Rueil  too  small,  and 
turned  to  the  building  of  Versailles,  only  sending  Lenotre 
to  study  the  beautiful  gardens  of  Richelieu.  The  grounds 
of  Rueil  were  cut  up  by  the  heirs  of  the  Duchesse 
d'Aiguillon,  and  the  chateau  was  destroyed  in  the  Rev- 
olution. 

On  descending  from  the  tramway  it  is  only  two  minutes' 
walk  (right,  then  left)  through  the  court  of  the  Hotel  de 
Ville  to  the  Church  of  Rueil ^  rebuilt  by  Napoleon  III.  To 
the  right  of  the  altar  is  the  tomb  of  Josephine  (by  Gilet 
and  Dubuc),  bearing  the  figure  of  the  empress  (by  Car- 
tellier),  dressed  as  in  the  coronation  picture  of  David, 
kneeling  at  a  prie-dieu,  and  inscribed:  "A  Jose'phine, 
Eugene  et  Hortense,  1825."  Close  by  is  the  simple 
sarcophagus  tomb  of  Count  Tascher  de  la  Pagerie,  gov- 
ernor of  Martinique,  uncle  of  the  Empress.  On  the  left  of 
the  altar  is  the  tomb  erected  by  Napoleon  III.  to  his 
mother,  with  the  figure  of  Queen  Hortense  (by  Bartolini) 
kneeling,  and  crowned  by  an  angel. ^  She  died  October  5, 
1837,  at  Arenenberg  on  the  lake  of  Constance,  desiring 
with  her  last  breath  to  be  buried  by  her  mother  at  Rueil. 
The  tomb  is  inscribed  :  "  A  la  Reine  Hortense,  le  Prince 
Louis  Bonaparte." 

The  street  opposite  the  church  door  leads  from  Rueil 
to  Malmaison,  passing,  to  the  left,  the  property  called 
Boispreau^  which,  under  the  first  empire,  belonged  to  an 
old  maiden  lady,  who  refused   to  sell  it  to  Josephine,  in 

'^  The  vault  beneath  may  be  seen  on  application  at  15  Place  de  I'Eglise. 


LA    MALMAISON  12 1 

spite    of   her  entreaties.       On   September    23,   1809,   the 
emperor  wrote  to  the  empress  at  Mahnaison  : — 

"  I  have  received  your  letter  of  the  i6th  ;  I  see  you  are  well. 
The  old  viaid' s  house  is  worth  only  120,000  francs.  They  will 
never  get  more  for  it.  Still,  I  leave  you  mistress  to  do  as  you 
like,  since  it  amuses  you  ;  but,  once  bought,  do  not  pull  it  down 
to  make  some  rocks.     Adieu,  man  amie. — Napoleon." 

Taking  the  convenient  tram  again,  which  runs  direct 
along  the  road,  we  may  descend  at — 

\%k.  La  Mahnaison. — The  station  is  opposite  a  short 
avenue,  at  the  end  of  which,  on  the  right,  is  the  principal 
entrance  to  Malmaison.  A  Httle  higher  up  the  road  (right) 
is  a  gate  leading  to  the  park  and  gardens,  freely  open  to 
the  public,  and  being  sold  (1887)  in  lots  by  the  State. 
There  is  melancholy  charm  in  the  old  house  of  many  recol- 
lections— grim,  empty,  and  desolate ;  approached  on  this 
side  by  a  bridge  over  the  dry  moat.  A  short  distance  off 
(rather  to  the  left,  as  you  look  from  the  house)  is  a  very 
pretty  little  temple— the  Temple  of  Love — with  a  front  of 
columns  of  red  Givet  marble  brought  from  the  chateau  of 
Richelieu,  and  a  clear  stream  bursting  from  the  rocks 
beneath  it. 

Malmaison  is  supposed  to  derive  its  name  from  having 
been  inhabited  in  the  XI.  c.  by  the  Norman  brigand  Odon, 
and  afterwards  by  evil  spirits,  exorcised  by  the  monks  of 
St.  Denis.  Josephine  bought  the  villa  with  its  gardens, 
which  had  been  much  praised  by  Delille,  from  M.  Lecou- 
teulx  de  Canteleu  for  160,000  francs.  The  Duchesse 
d'Abrantes  describes  the  life  here  under  the  Consulate — 

"The  life  led  at  Malmaison  resembled  the  life  led  in  all 
country  houses  where  much  company  is  assembled.  In  the  morn- 
ing we  rise  when  we  like,  and,  till  eleven,  the  hour  fixed  for 
breakfast,  one  is  one's  own  mistress.  At  eleven  we  meet  in  a 
little,  very  low  saloon,  looking  on  the  court,  on  the  first  floor,  and 


t22  DA  YS  NEAR  PARIS 

in  the  right  wing  ;  no  men  are  present,  just  as  at  breakfast  in 
Paris,  unless  Joseph  or  perhaps  Louis  or  Fesch,  or  some  of  the 
family.  The  exceptions  were  so  rare  that  I  do  not  recall  ever 
having  seen  a  man  at  the  breakfasts  at  Malmaison.  After  break- 
fast, conversation,  or  reading  the  papers,  some  one  was  always 
coming  from  Paris  for  an  audience,  for  Mme  Bonaparte  already 
granted  audience. 

"The  first  consul  was  never  seen  before  dinner.  He  came 
down  at  five  or  six  in  the  morning  into  his  private  cabinet  ;  he 
worked  with  Bourrienne,  or  the  ministers,  generals,  or  councillors 
of  state  ;  and  this  continued  till  the  dinner  hour,  which  always 
took  place  at  six  o'clock.  It  was  rare  that  somebody  was  not 
invited. 

"On  Wednesdays  he  gave  a  dinner,  almost  of  ceremony,  at 
Malmaison.  The  second  consul  was  present,  the  councillors  of 
state,  the  ministers,  some  generals  particularly  esteemed,  and 
women  of  unsoiled  reputation.  When  it  was  fine,  the  first  consul 
would  order  dinner  to  be  served  in  the  park.  The  table  was 
placed  on  the  left  of  the  lawn  before  the  chateau,  a  little  in  ad- 
vance of  the  right  avenue.  A  short  time  was  spent  at  table  ;  the 
first  consul  thought  the  dinner  long  if  it  lasted  a  half-hour. 

"When  he  was  in  good  humor,  the  weather  fine,  and  he  had 
at  his  disposition  some  minutes,  snatched  from  the  constant  labor 
which  was  then  killing  him,  he  played  with  us  at  '  prisoner's  bars.' 
He  cheated  as  he  did  at  reversis  ;  he  knocked  us  down,  he  came 
on  us  without  crying,  'bar,'  cheating  in  a  way  to  provoke  merry 
laughter.  On  these  occasions,  Napoleon  took  his  coat  off,  and 
ran  like  a  hare,  or  rather  like  the  gazelle  he  made  eat  all  the  snuflf 
in  his  box,  telling  it  to  run  at  us,  and  the  accursed  beast  tore  our 
gowns  and  pretty  often  our  legs." — Me'moires. 

Josephine  retired  to  Malmaison   at   the  time  of  her 

divorce,  and  seldom  left  it  afterwards. 

"Napoleon,  moved  and  disturbed,  weeping  like  them,  told 
Josephine's  children  that  their  mother  was  neither  repudiated  nor 
disgraced,  but  sacrificed  to  a  State  necessity,  and  recompensed  for 
her  noble  sacrifice  by  the  greatness  of  her  children,  and  the  tender 
friendship  of  him  who  had  been  her  husband.  .  .  .  The  Senatus- 
consultum  continued  to  Josephine  the  rank  of  empress,  and  as- 
signed her  a  revenue  of  two  millions,  with  a  free  gift  of  the  cha- 
teaux of  Navarre  and  Malmaison,  and  numerous  precious  objects." 
—  Thiers ^  ' '  V  Empire. " 


LA    MAL'MAISON- 


123 


In  1 8 14,  the  unhappy  Josephine,  whose  heart  was  al- 
ways with  Napoleon^  was  forced  to  receive  a  visit  from  the 
allied  sovereigns  at  Malmaison,  and  died  of  a  chill  which 
she  caught  in  doing  the  honors  of  her  grounds  to  the  Em- 
peror Alexander  on  May  26,  by  a  water  excursion  on  the 
pool  of  Cucufa.  After  his  return  from  Elba,  Napoleon  re- 
visited the  place. 

"  He  felt  the  need  of  revisiting  the  modest  dwelling  where 
he  had  passed  the  fairest  years  of  his  life,  by  the  side  of  a  wife 


MALMAISON. 


who  had,  assuredly,  faults,  but  was  a  true  friend  ;  one  of  those 
souls  that  are  never  met  twice,  and  are  forever  regretted  when 
lost.  He  obliged  Queen  Hortense,  who  had  not  yet  dared  to 
enter  a  spot  so  full  of  poignant  memories,  to  accompany  him. 
In  spite  of  his  crushing  preoccupations,  he  consecrated  several 
hours  to  traversing  the  little  chateau  and  the  gardens,  where  Jose- 
phine cultivated  the  flowers  she  collected  from  all  quarters  of  the 
globe.  In  seeing  once  more  these  dear  and  saddening  objects, 
he  fell  into  melancholy  reveries. 

"  Napoleon,  while  walking  in  this  spot,  at  once  so  attractive 
and  so  distressing,  said  to  Queen  Hortense,  '  Poor  Josephine  ! 
by  every  turn  in  the  walks,  I  fancy  I  see  her.     Her  death,  the 


Ii4  ^^  ^'^  NEAR  PARIS 

news  of  which  surprised  me  at  Elba,  was  one  of  the  keenest  sor- 
rows of  that  fatal  year  1814.  She  had  weaknesses  be3'ond  doubt, 
but  she  at  least  would  never  have  abandoned  me!'" — Thiers, 
"  L' E?npire.'' 

After  the  loss  of  the  battle  of  Waterloo,  Napoleon 
once  more  retired  to  Malmaison,  then  the  property  of  the 
children  of  Josephine,  Eugene  and  Hortense.  There  he 
passed  June  25,  1815,  a  day  of  terrible  agitation. 

"  At  times  he  demonstrated  the  necessity,  for  France  and 
himself,  of  withdrawing  his  abdication  and  taking  up  the  sword 
again  ;  and  then  he  was  heard  making  plans  of  retirement,  and 
arranging  for  a  life  of  profound  solitude  and  repose." — A  de 
Vatdabelle. 

That  evening  at  five  o'clock  he  put  on  a  "  costume  de 
ville — un  habit  marron,"  tenderly  embraced  Queen  Hor- 
tense and  the  other  persons  present,  gave  a  long  lingering 
look  at  the  house  and  gardens  connected  with  his  happiest 
hours,  and  left  them  forever. 

After  the  second  Restoration  Prince  Eugene  sold  Mal- 
maison,  removing  its  gallery  of  pictures  to  Munich.  There 
is  now  nothing  remarkable  in  the  desolate  rooms,  though 
the  "  Salle  des  Marechaux,"  the  bedroom  of  Josephine, 
and  the  grand  salon  (with  a  chimney-piece  given  by  the 
Pope),  are  pointed  out.  In  later  years  the  house  was  for 
some  time  inhabited  by  Queen  Christina  of  Spain.  It  will 
be  a  source  of  European  regret  if  at  least  the  building  con- 
nected with  so  many  historic  souvenirs,  and  the  immediate 
grounds,  be  not  preserved. 

Returning  to  the  tram,  we  reach — 

16  k.   La  yonchere^  where  Louis  Bonaparte  had  a  villa. 

\lk.  Bougival  {^Restaurant  Fignon  ;  de  Madrid.  Hotel 
de  r Union).  A  rapidly  increasing  village,  which,  in  its 
quieter  days,  was  much  frequented  by  artists  of  the  Corot 
school,  who  appreciated  the  peaceful  scenery  of  the  Seine. 


MA  RL  Y-LA  -MA  CHINE  125 

The  inventor  of  the  Machine  de  Marly  died  here  in  great 
destitution  and  is  buried  in  the  church  witii  the  inscription : 
"^  Cy  gissent  honorables  personnes, -Rennequin  Sualem, 
seul  inventeur  de  la  machine  de  Marly,  de'cede  le  29  juillet, 
1708,  age  de  64  ans,  et  dame  Marie  Nouelle,  son  epouse, 
decedee  le  4  mai,  17 14,  agee  de  84  ans."  The  church  has 
a  stone  spire  of  the  XII.  c. 

On  the  Route  de  Versailles  is  a  monument  to  three 
natives  of  Bougival,  shot  for  cutting  the  telegraph  lines  of 
Prussian  investiture.  It  is  inscribed  with  the  last  words  of 
one  of  them  :  "  Je  suis  Frangais.  Je  dois  tout  entreprendre 
contre  vous.  Si  vous  me  rendez  k  la  liberte,  je  recommen- 
cerai." 

The  park  of  the  neighboring  Chateau  de  Buzenval  was 
twice  the  scene  of  a  bloody  conflict  between  the  French 
and  Prussians.  The  painter,  Henri  Regnault,  fell  there, 
January  19,  1870.  The  chateau  is  a  quaint  low  building, 
with  a  tower  at  either  end. 

i^k.  is  the  village  of  La  Celle  St.  Cloud.  Its  chateau, 
the  central  part  of  which  dates  from  16 16  (when  Joachim 
Saudras  added  it  to  a  hospice  belonging  to  the  abbey  of 
St.  Germain  des  Pres),  was  bought  in  1686  by  Bachelier, 
first  valet  de  chambre  of  Louis  XIV.,  with  money  given  him 
by  the  Due  de  la  Rochefoucauld,  on  condition  of  his  having 
it  to  inhabit  whenever  he  pleased.  The  duke  received 
Louis  XIV.  and  Mme  de  Maintenon  there  in  1695.  ^^ 
1748  Mme  de  Pompadour  bought  the  chateau,  but  sold  it 
two  years  after.  The  Chataiguerie  is  reached  by  the  ave- 
nue which  opens  on  the  left  at  the  entrance  of  the  village. 

\Zk.  Marly-la-Machhie. — The  famous  Machine  de  Ma?-^y 
which  lifted  the  waters  of  the  Seine  643  metres,  to  the  height 
of  the  Aqueduct  de  Marly,  by  which  they  were  carried  to 
Versailles,  passed  for  a  long  time  as  a  chef-d'oeuvre  of  mech- 


126  ^A  YS  NEAR  PARIS 

anism.  It  was  invented  by  Rennequin  Sualem,  carpenter 
of  Liege,  but  was  executed  under  tiie  inspection  of  the 
Chevalier  Deville,  who  appropriated  both  the  honor  and  the 
reward.  Since  1826  the  original  machine  has  been  re- 
placed by  another  of  64-horse  power,  worked  by  steam. 
It  is  fifteen  minutes'  walk  from  the  machine  to  the  first 
arches  of  the  Aqueduct. 

i()k.  Fort-Marly. — Here  carriages  are  changed  for  the 
ascent  of  the  hill.  The  tram  passes  under  the  railway 
viaduct  to — 

21^/^.  Marly-le-Roi.,  called  Marlacum  in  the  charters  of 
King  Thierry,  678.  The  tram  stops  close  to  the  Abreuvoir, 
a  large  artificial  tank,  surrounded  by  masonry  for  receiving 
the  surplus  water  from  the  fountains  in  the  palace  gardens, 
of  which  it  is  now  the  only  remnant.  Ascending  the  avenue 
on  the  right,  we  shall  find  a  road  at  the  top  which  will  lead 
us,  to  the  left,  through  delightful  woods  to  the  site  of  the 
palace.  Nothing  remains  but  the  walls  supporting  the 
wooded  terrace.  It  is  difiicult  to  realize  the  place  as  it 
was,  for  the  quincunces  of  limes  which  stood  between  the 
pavilions  on  either  side  the  steep  avenue  leading  to  the  royal 
residence,  formerly  clipped  and  kept  close,  are  now  huge 
trees,  marking  still  the  design  of  the  grounds,  but  obscuring 
the  views,  and,  by  their  great  growth,  making  the  main 
avenue  very  narrow.  Here,  seated  under  the  trees,  visitors 
may  like  to  read  the  story  of  the  place. 

"The  king,  tired  of  splendor  and  bustle,  persuaded  himself 
that  he  should  like  something  little  and  solitary.  He  searched 
all  around  Versailles  for  some  place  to  satisfy  this  new  taste. 
He  examined  several  neighborhoods,  he  traversed  the  hills  near 
St.  Germain,  and  the  vast  plain  which  is  at  the  bottom,  where 
the  Seine  winds  and  bathes  the  feet  of  so  many  towns  and  so 
many  treasures  in  quitting  Paris.  He  was  pressed  to  fix  himself 
at  Lucienne,  where  Cavoye  afterwards  had  a   house,   the   view 


MA  RL  1  ^-LE-R  01  127 

from  which  is  enchanting  ;  but  he  replied  that  that  fine  situation 
would  ruin  him,  and  that,  as  he  wished  to  go  to  no  expense,  so 
also  he  wished  a  situation  which  would  not  urge  him  to  any. 
He  found,  behind  Lucienne,  a  deep,  narrow  valley,  completely 
shut  in,  inaccessible  from  its  swamps  and  with  no  view,  hills  on 
all  sides,  and  a  wretched  village,  called  Marly,  on  one  of  them. 
This  closeness  of  the  valley,  without  a  view  or  the  means  of  hav- 
ing any,  was  all  its  merit.  He  fancied  he  was  choosing  a  minister, 
a  favorite,  a  general.  It  was  a  great  work  to  drain  this  sewer  of 
all  the  neighborhood,  which  threw  its  garbage  there,  and  to  bring 
soil  thither. 

"  At  first,  it  was  only  for  sleeping  in,  three  nights,  from 
Wednesday  to  Saturday,  two  or  three  times  in  the  year,  with  a 
dozen  or  so  of  courtiers  to  fill  the  most  indispensable  posts. 

"  By  degrees  the  hermitage    was    augmented,    the   hills   cut 
down  to  give  room  for  building,  and  the  one  at  the  end  pared 
away  to  give   at  least  a  kind   of  imperfect  view.     In  fine,  with 
buildings,  gardens,  waterworks,   aqueducts,    with   all  that   is  so 
curious  and    so  well  known   under  the  name   of  Marly  ;  with  a 
park,  an   ornamental  and  enclosed  forest,  with  statues  and  pre- 
cious furniture,  Marly  became  what  we  see.     With  whole  forests, 
well  grown  and  branching,  which   were  brought  in  the  form  of 
huge    trees,    from    Compiegne    and    further    incessantly,    three- 
fourths  of  which  died  and  were  immediately  replaced  ;  with  vast 
spaces   of  dense  woods  and  obscure  alleys,  suddenly  changing 
into  immense  pieces  of  water  with  gondolas  on  their  bosom,  then 
changed  again  into  forests,  impervious  to  light  as  soon  as  they 
were  planted  (I  speak  of  what  I  saw  in  six  weeks)  ;  with  basins, 
changed  a  hundred  times,  and  cascades  similarly,   with  figures  in 
succession  all  different  ;  with  carp  stews,  adorned  with  the  most 
exquisite  gilding  and   painting,  barely  finished,  changed  and  re- 
fashioned by  the  same  masters  an  infinit)''  of  times  ;  with,  in  addi- 
tion, that  prodigious  machine,  just   alluded  to,  with  its  immense 
aqueducts,    monstrous   conduits    and  reservoirs,    devoted  solely 
to  Marl}',  without  supplying  water  to  Versailles — it  may  be  almost 
said  that  Versailles,  as  it  stands,  did  not  cost  as  much  as  Marl3^ 
"  If  there  are  added  the  expenses  of  the  ceaseless  journeys, 
which  became,  at  last,  at  least  equal  to  a  residence  at  Versailles, 
and  often  as  thronged,  when,  quite  at  the  end  of  his  life,  this  be- 
came the  most  customary  residence,  we  will  not  say  too  much, 
if  we  estimate  Marl}-  by  milliards.     Such  was  the  fortune  of  a 
den  of  snakes  and  carrion  crows,  of  toads  and  frogs,  chosen  for 


128  ^A  YS  NEAR   PARIS 

no  other  reason  than  to  spend  money  there.  Such  was  the  bad 
taste  of  the  king  in  everything,  and  his  superb  delight  in  forcing 
nature,  which  neither  the  most  oppressive  war  nor  devotion 
could  diminish." — St.  Simon,  ^'M^moires." 

St.  Simon  exaggerates  the  extravagance  of  Louis  XVI. 
at  Marly,  who  spent  there  four  and  a  half  million  francs 
between  1679  ^^^'^  1690,  and  probably  as  much  or  more 
between  1690  and  17 15,  perhaps  in  all  ten  or  twelve  mil- 
lions, which  would  represent  fifty  million  francs  at  the 
present  time.  Nevertheless  the  expense  of  the  amuse??te?ifs 
of  Louis  XIV.  greatly  exceeded  the  whole  revenue  of 
Henri  IV.  and  those  of  the  early  years  of  Louis  XIII. 

"  Louis  chose  the  valley  of  Marly  to  build  a  hermitage  there. 
Marly  was  to  be  for  him  a  shelter  where  he  could  be  freed  from 
public  life  by  a  free  private  life.  But  Louis  could  no  longer  be 
simple  ;  the  pomp  of  his  past  followed  him  everywhere  in  spite 
of  him,  and  the  hermitage  became  a  palace,  in  truth,  a  palace 
silent  and  concealed.  Mansart  built  under  the  shades  of  Marly 
a  splendid  pavilion  for  the  king,  with  twelve  lesser  pavilions  for 
the  courtiers  admitted  to  the  favor  of  following  Louis  into  this 
privileged  retreat ;  again  there  was  the  symbolic  m3^thology  of 
Versailles,  the  royal  sun  reappeared  surrounded  by  the  twelve 
signs  of  the  Zodiac.  Abysses  of  verdure,  kept  fresh  by  really 
unrivalled  cascades,  and  fountains  without  number  enveloped 
this  fairy  bower.  A  veiled  sumptuousness  reigned  there,  a  sort 
of  chiaro-osciDv  in  harmony  with  the  secret,  which,  after  the  death 
of  the  queen  (Jul}^  30,  1683),  the  court  soon  suspected  between 
the  king  and  Mme  de  Maintenon.  Marly  and  Maintenon  are 
two  names  inseparable  in  our  memory  ;  these  two  names  recall  to 
us,  as  it  were,  a  half-light  where  one  speaks  in  half-tones  ;  some- 
thing discreet,  reposeful,  cautious,  a  long  twilight  after  the  flam- 
ing splendor  of  the  first  years  of  the  great  reign." — H.  Martin, 
^'  Hist,  de  France.^' 

From  the  central  pavilion  in  which  the  flattery  of  Man- 
sart placed  him  as  the  sun,  Louis  XIV.  emerged  every 
morning  to  visit  the  occupiers  of  the  twelve  smaller  pavil- 
ions (Les  Pavilions  des  Seigneurs),  the  constellations,  his 


PALACE   OF  MARLY  I2q 

courtiers,  who  came  out  to  meet  him  and  swelled  his  train. 
These  pavilions,  arranged  on  each  side  of  the  gardens, 
stood  in  double  avenues  of  clipped  lime-trees  looking  upon 
the  garden  and  its  fountains,  and  leading  up  to  the  palace. 
The  device  of  the  sun  was  carried  out  in  the  palace  itself, 
where  all  the  smaller  apartments  circled  round  the  grand 
salon,  the  king  and  queen  having  apartments  to  the  back, 
the  dauphin  and  dauphine  to  the  front,  each  apartment 
consisting  of  an  anteroom,  bedroom,  and  sitting-room, 
and  each  set  being  connected  with  one  of  the  four  square 
saloons,  which  opened  upon  the  great  octagonal  hall,  of 
which  four  faces  were  occupied  by  chimney-pieces  and 
four  by  the  doors  of  the  smaller  saloons.  The  central  hall 
occupied  the  whole  height  of  the  edifice,  and  was  lighted 
from  the  upper  story. 

The  great  ambition  of  every  courtier  was  "  etre  des 
Marlys,"  and  all  curried  favor  with  the  king  by  asking  to 
accompany  him  on  his  weekly  '•  voyages  de  Marly."' 

"This  was  called  presenting  one's  self  for  Marl}*.  The  men 
asked  on  the  morning  of  the  day,  saying  to  the  king  merely, 
*  Sire,  Marly  ! '  In  his  last  years  the  king  grew  tired  of  this.  A 
page  in  blue  in  the  gallery  inscribed  the  names  of  those  who  asked, 
and  put  down  their  names.  The  ladies  always  continued  to  pre- 
sent themselves. 

"At  Marly,  if  the  king  was  in  residence,  all  who  went  there 
had  full  liberty  to  follow  him  to  the  gardens,  to  join  him  or  to 
leave  him  ;  in  one  word,  do  just  as  they  liked. 

"All  the  ladies  who  went  had  the  honor  of  eating,  evening 
and  morning,  at  the  same  hour  in  the  same  little  saloon  that 
separated  the  apartments  of  the  king  from  those  of  Mme  de 
Maintenon.  The  king  kept  a  table  where  all  the  sons  of  France 
and  the  princesses  of  the  blood  were  placed,  except  the  Duke  de 
Berr)%  the  Duke  of  Orleans  and  the  Princess  de  Conti,  who  were 
always  placed  at  the  table  of  Monseigneur ,  even  when  he  was 
hunting.  There  was  a  third  smaller  table  where  sometimes  one, 
sometimes   others  were   placed,  and   all   three  were   round,  with 


I^o  ^A  YS  NEAR  PARIS 

liberty  for  all  to  sit  at  whichever  seemed  good  to  them.  The 
princesses  of  the  blood  were  placed,  right  and  left,  according  to 
rank  ;  the  duchesses  and  other  princesses  as  they  happened,  but 
next  to  the  princesses  of  the  blood  without  any  mingling  of  any 
others  ;  then  the  non-titled  ladies  completed  the  round  of  the 
table,  and  Mme  de   Maintenon  among  them  about  the  middle  ; 

but  for  a  long  time  she  had  not  eaten  there At  the  end  of 

dinner  the  king  went  to  the  rooms  of  Mme  de  Maintenon,  and 
sat  in  ?i  f ante  nil  near  her  in  a  niche  formed  by  a  sofa  closed  in  on 
three  sides,  the  princesses  of  the  blood  on  stools  near  them,  and, 
at  a  distance,  some  privileged  ladies.  There  were  several  tables 
of  tea  and  coffee,  and  any  who  liked  took  some.  The  king  re- 
mained a  longer  or  shorter  time,  according  as  the  conversation  of 
the  princesses  amused  him,  or  business  demanded ;  then  he 
passed  before  all  these  ladies,  and  went  to  his  own  rooms,  and 
all  left  except  some  friends  of  Mme  de  Maintenon.  After  dinner 
no  one  entered  where  the  king  and  Mme  de  Maintenon  were  ex- 
cept the  Duchess  de  Bourgogne,  and  the  minister  who  came  on 
business.  The  door  was  closed,  and  the  ladies  in  the  other  room 
only  saw  the  king  passing  in  to  supper,  and  followed  him  ;  after 
supper,  in  his  rooms,  the  princesses,  just  as  at. Versailles." — St. 
Simon,  1707. 

The  Court  used  to  arrive  at  Marly  on  a  Wednesday 
and  leave  it  on  a  Saturday ;  this  was  an  invariable  rule. 
The  king  always  passed  his  Sundays  at  Versailles,  which 
was  his  parish. 

"Louis  XIV.  had  established  for  Marly  a  kind  of  etiquette 
different  from  that  of  Versailles,  but  still  more  wearisome.  Cards 
and  supper  took  place  every  day,  and  demanded  much  dressing ; 
Sundays  and  fete  days  the  waters  played,  and  the  people  were 
admitted  into  the  garden,  and  there  was  always  as  many  people 
as  at  the  fetes  of  St.  Cloud. 

"The  ages  have  their  colors,  and  assuredly  Marly  still  more 
than  Versailles  carried  one  back  to  that  of  Louis  XIV.  ;  all 
seemed  to  be  constructed  by  the  magic  power  of  a  fairy  wand, 

"  The  palace  and  the  gardens  of  this  house  of  pleasure,  could 
also  be  compared  to  the  theatrical  setting  of  the  fifth  act  of  an 
opera.  There  no  longer  exists  the  slightest  trace  of  so  much 
magnificence  ;  the  revolutionary  demolishers  tore  from  the  bosom 


LIFE   AT  MARLY  131 

of  the  earth  even  the  cast-iron  pipes  that  brought  the  waters. 
Perhaps  a  brief  description  of  this  palace  and  the  usages  estab- 
lished there  by  Louis  XIV.  may  be  of  interest. 

"  The  garden  of  Marly,  long  and  very  broad,  ascended,  by  an 
imperceptible  slope,  to  the  pavilion  of  the  sun,  inhabited  only  by 
the  king  and  his  family.  The  pavilions  of  the  twelve  signs  of  the 
zodiac  bordered  the  two  sides  of  the  parterre,  and  were  united  by 
charming  arbors  where  the  sun's  ra3'S  could  not  penetrate.  The 
pavilions  nearest  that  of  the  sun  were  reserved  for  princes  of  the" 
blood,  or  persons  invited  to  stay  at  Marh' ;  all  the  pavilions  were 
named  after  the  fresco  paintings  which  covered  the  walls,  and 
had  been  executed  by  the  most  celebrated  artists  of  the  age  of 
Louis  XIV. 

"On  the  line  of  the  pavilion  above  were,  on  the  left,  the 
Chapel  ;  on  the  right,  a  pavilion,  styled  La  Perspective,  which 
masked  a  large  space  in  which  were  lodgings  destined  to  persons 
attached  to  the  service  of  the  court,  the  kitchens  and  immense 
halls,  where  more  than  thirty  tables  were  splendidly  served. 

"  During  half  of  Louis  XV. 's  reign,  the  ladies  still  wore  the 
Marly  court  dress,  so  styled  by  Louis  XIV.,  which  differed  from 
that  adopted  at  Versailles  ;  the  French  robe,  with  plaits  at  the 
back  and  large  paniers,  took  the  place  of  this  dress,  and  was  kept 
till  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Louis  XVI. 

"The  diamonds,  the  feathers,  the  rouge,  the  dress  em- 
broidered or  covered  with  gold  thread,  took  away  the  slightest 
appearance  of  a  sojourn  in  the  country  ;  but  the  people  loved  to 
see  the  pomp  of  its  sovereigns  and  of  a  brilliant  court  pass  be- 
neath its  groves. 

"After  dinner,  and  before  the  time  for  play,  the  queen  and 
princesses,  with  their  ladies,  wheeled,  by  men  in  the  royal  livery, 
in  carrioles,  covered  with  gold-embroidered  canopies,  traversed 
the  thickets  of  Marh',  where  the  trees,  planted  by  Louis  XIV., 
were  of  prodigious  height  ;  in  many  places  the  height  of  these 
trees  was  surpassed  by  the  fountains  of  the  most  limpid  water  ; 
while  in  others,  cascades  of  white  marble,  whose  waters,  smitten 
by  some  beams  of  the  sun,  seemed  sheets  of  silver  gauze,  con- 
trasted with  the  obscurity  of  the  thickets. 

"  In  the  evening,  to  be  admitted  to  theyVw  de  la  reitie,  it  was 
sufficient  for  any  well-dressed  man  to  be  named  and  presented 
by  an  officer  of  the  court  to  the  usher  of  the  play-room.  The 
saloon,  very  large  and  octagonal  in  shape,  rose  up  to  the  roof  in 
the  Italian  style,  and  was  terminated  by  a  cupola  ornamented  by 


132 


DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 


balconies,  where  the  ladies  not  presented  could  easily  gain  ad- 
mittance to  enjoy  the  sight  of  this  brilliant  gathering. 

"The  rich  men  and  heavy  players  of  Paris  never  missed  one 
of  the  evenings  at  Marly,  and  the  sums  lost  and  won  were  always 
considerable. 

"Louis  XIV.  hated  high  play,  and  often  displayed  temper 
when  heavy  losses  were  mentioned.  The  men  had  not  yet  intro- 
duced the  fashion  of  Avearing  black  while  not  in  mourning,  and 
the  king  gave  some  of  his  hardest  raps  to  the  knights  of  St.  Louis 
thus  dressed,  who  came  to  risk  two  or  three  loiiis  in  the  hope 
that  fortune  would  favor  the  pretty  duchesses  who  were  glad  to 
place  them  on  their  cards. 

"Strange  contrasts  are  seen  in  the  midst  of  the  grandeur  of 
courts  ;  to  play  such  great  stakes  at  the  queen's  faro-table,  there 
was  required  a  banker  provided  with  large  sums  of  money,  and 
this  necessity  gave  a  seat  at  the  table,  where  etiquette  admitted 
only  persons  of  the  highest  title,  not  only  to  M.  de  Chalabre,  who 
was  the  banker,  but  also  to  a  simple  retired  captain  of  infantry, 
who  was  his  second.  A  trivial  expression  was  heard  very  often 
uttered,  expressive  of  the  manner  in  which  court  was  paid  to  the 
king.  The  men,  who  had  been  presented  but  not  invited  to  reside 
at  Marly,  went  there  just  as  to  Versailles,  and  then  returned  to 
Paris,  and  thus  the  fashion  came  up  of  saying  that  one  had  only 
been  to  Marly  en  polisson ;  and  nothing  appeared  to  me  more 
singular  than  to  hear  a  charming  marquis  reply  to  one  of  his 
friends  who  asked  him  if  he  had  been  in  the  voyage  de  Marly : 
'  Non,  je  n'y  suis  qu'en  polisson.'  This  simply  meant,  '  I  was 
there  like  all  those  whose  nobility  does  not  date  from  1400.' 
What  great  talents,  what  men  of  high  merit,  who  soon,  unhappily, 
began  to  attack  the  ancient  monarchy,  were  found  in  the  class 
designated  by  the  word  polisson  ! 

"  These  '  voyages  de  Marly  '  were  very  dear  for  the  king.  After 
the  tables  of  honor,  those  of  the  chaplains,  the  equerries,  the 
stewards,  &:c.,  were  all  so  magnificently  served,  that  strangers 
were  invited  to  them,  and  almost  every  one  who  came  from  Paris 
was  supported  at  the  expense  of  the  court." — ''  Me'nioires." 

The  leading  figure  at  Marly  was  Mme  de  Maintenon, 
who  occupied  the  apartments  intended  for  Queen  Marie 
Therese,  but  who  led  the  simplest  of  lives,  bored  almost 
to  extinction.     She  used  to  compare  the  carp  languishing 


MADAME   DE   MAINTENON  •  133 

in  the  tanks  of  Marly  to  herself — ""  Comme  moi,  ils  regret- 
tent  leur  bourbe." 

"  Success,  entire  confidence,  rare  devotion,  omnipotence, 
public  and  universal  adoration,  ministers,  generals,  the  highest  of 
the  roj'al  family,  all,  in  a  word,  prostrate  at  her  feet ;  everything 
well  and  good  by  her,  and  faulty  without  her.  ]Men,  business, 
things,  appointments,  justice,  mercy,  religion,  all  without  excep- 
tion, in  her  hands  ;  even  the  king  and  the  fate  of  his  victims.  Who 
was  this  incredible  fairy?  how  did  she  rule  without  a  break,  ob- 
stacle, or  the  slightest  cloud  for  more  than  thirty  years — aye,  for 
thirty-two?  This  is  the  strange  phenomenon  which  has  to  be 
retraced,   and  which  was  one  to  all  Europe." — St.   Si/noii,  "  JA'- 

"  It  was  principally  on  points  of  morals  and  in  questions  of  re- 
ligion that  the  influence  of  Mme  de  Maintenon  was  powerful  and 
almost  irresistible.  In  this  respect  she  believed  she  had  a  mission 
to  accomplish  ;  she  regarded  herself,  in  good  faith,  as  chosen  by 
Providence  to  bring  Louis  XIV.  back  to  continence  and  piety, 
to  guide  him  in  the  path  of  salvation,  to  sanctify  a  reign  which 
hitherto  had  been  only  glorious,  to  fortify  and  extend  the  empire 
of  religion  and  the  authority  of  the  Church.  It  was  this  which 
was  repeated  to  her  incessantly  by  men  clothed  with  a  sacred 
character,  whose  virtues  she  admired,  who  inspired  her  with 
boundless  confidence,  and  whom  she  listened  to  with  submissive 
docility.  Fenelon  wrote  to  her  one  day,  'The  friendship  which 
you  have  for  the  king  ought  to  be  purified  by  sorrow ;  it  is  a 
slight  thing  to  have  no  interest  ;  every  consolation  must  be  re- 
nounced, and  the  most  humiliating  things  endured.  You  will 
never  become  too  small  beneath  your  cross,  and  you  will  never 
have  so  much  liberty,  authority,  or  power  in  3'our  words  as  when 
you  shall  be  humbled  and  made  lowly  by  renouncing  all  your 
sensibility.'  " — Hcqnct,  "  Hist,  de  Mme  de  Maintenon.'' 

At  first  Mme  de  Maintenon  dined,  in  the  midst  of  the 
other  ladies,  in  the  square  salon  which  separated  her  apart- 
ment from  that  of  the  king;  but  soon  she  had  a  special 
table,  to  which  a  very  few  other  ladies,  her  intimates,  came 
by  invitation. 

"  Queen  in  private,  as  displayed  by  her  tone,  her  seat  and 
place  in  presence  of  the  king,  Monseigneur,  Monsieur,  the  court 


134  DA  YS  NEAR  PARIS 

of  England,  and  of  all  present,  she  was  a  very  simple  private 
gentlewoman  externally,  always  taking  the  lowest  place.  I  have 
often  seen  her  at  the  king's  dinners  at  Marly,  eating  with  him  and 
the  ladies,  and  at  Fontainebleau,  in  full  dress,  with  the  Queen  of 
England,  as  I  have  remarked  elsewhere,  absolutely  yielding  her 
place  and  retiring  always  for  titled  ladies,  even  for  distinguished 
ladies  of  quality,  never  being  forced  by  those  of  title,  but  by  those 
of  ordinary  quality,  with  an  air  of  careful  civility,  and  ever}'-- 
where  polished,  affable,  speaking  like  a  person  who  makes  no 
claims  or  demonstrations,  but  who  was  resolved  only  to  consider 
what  was  about  her. 

"Always  dressed  well,  nobly,  neatly,  tastefully,  but  very 
modestly,  and  in  a  style  older  than  her  age  required.  After  she 
ceased  to  appear  in  public,  she  wore  caps  and  a  black  scarf  when 
she  happened  to  be  seen. 

"  She  never  visited  tlic  king  but  when  he  was  sick,  or  in  the 
mornings  when  he  had  taken  medicine  ;  and  so,  too,  with  the 
Duchess  de  Bourgogne  ;  never  otherwise  for  any  duty. 

"  In  her  own  rooms  with  the  king,  they  each  sat  in  a  fauteuil, 
a  table  before  each  at  the  corners  of  the  fire-place  ;  she  next  the 
bed,  the  king  with  his  back  to  the  wall  on  the  side  of  the  ante- 
room door,  and  two  stools  before  the  table,  one  for  the  minister, 
who  came  to  transact  business,  the  other  for  his  bag.  On  busi- 
ness days,  they  were  not  long  together  before  the  minister  entered, 
and  often  a  still  shorter  time  after  he  left. 

"  During  the  transaction  of  business  Mme  de  Maintenon  read 
or  did  tapestry.  She  heard  all  tliat  passed  between  the  king  and 
the  minister,  for  they  spoke  loud.  She  rarely  interjected  a  word, 
still  more  rarely  was  it  of  any  consequence.  Often  the  king  asked 
her  advice.  Then  she  replied  with  great  discretion.  Never,  or 
almost  never,  did  she  seem  to  lay  stress  on  anything,  and  still 
seldomer,  to  take  interest  in  any  one,  but  she  was  in  accord  with 
the  minister,  who  did  not  dare  to  oppose  her  in  private,  or  flinch 
in  her  presence.  When  some  favor  or  some  post  was  to  be 
granted  the  matter  was  arranged  between  them  beforehand,  and 
this  sometimes  delayed  business  without  the  king  or  any  one 
knowing  the  reason. 

"About  nine  o'clock,  two  lady's  maids  came  and  undressed 
Mme  de  Maintenon  ;  soon  afterwards,  her  inattre-d' hotel,  and  a 
valet  de  chambre  brought  her  some  soup  and  something  light. 
When  she  had  finished  supper,  her  women  put  her  into  bed,  and 
all  this  in  presence  of  the  king,  and  the  minister  (who  continued 


MADAME  DE  MAINTENON  13 e 

his  work,  and  did  not  speak  any  lower),  or  if  no  minister  were 
there,  some  ladies  with  whom  she  was  intimate.  All  this  brought 
it  on  to  ten  o'clock,  when  the  king  went  to  supper,  and  at  the 
same  time  the  curtains  of  Mme  de  Maintenon  were  drawn.  .  .  . 
The  king  went  to  her  bedside,  where  he  remained  standing  a 
while,  wishing  her  good  night,  and  then  went  to  take  his  place  at 
table.  Such  was  the  routine  of  life  in  Mme  de  Maintenon's  apart- 
ments. 

"  It  has  been  said  that  Mme  de  Maintenon  was  a  private  gen- 
tlewoman in  public  ;  elsewhere,  queen  ;  sometimes  queen  even  in 
public,  as  at  the  promenades  of  Marly,  when  out  of  complaisance 
she  joined  in  them  when  the  king  wished  to  show  her  something 
newly  completed. 

"  Queen  in  private,  Mme  de  Maintenon  always  had  2t.  fauteuil, 
and  in  the  most  convenient  place  in  her  room,  in  presence  of  the 
king,  all  the  royal  family,  even  in  presence  of  the  Queen  of  Eng- 
land. At  most  she  rose  for  Monseigneur  and  Monsieur,  because 
they  rarely  visited  her.  For  no  other  son  of  France,  their  wives, 
or  the  king's  bastards,  did  she  rise,  nor  for  any  one,  except,  a  little, 
for  ordinary  persons  with  whom  she  was  not  intimate,  and  who 
had  obtained  an  audience,  for,  polite  and  modest,  she  always 
attended  to  these  points. 

"  What  was  a  perpetual  astonishment  was  the  promenades  just 
mentioned,  which  she  took,  out  of  excess  of  complaisance,  with 
the  king,  in  the  gardens  of  Marly.  He  would  have  been  a  hun- 
dred times  more  at  his  ease  with  the  queen,  and  shown  less  gal- 
lantry. His  respect  was  most  marked,  although  in  the  midst  of 
the  court,  and  in  presence  of  all  the  inhabitants  of  Marly  who 
chose  to  be  there.  The  king  believed  himself  to  be  there  in  pri- 
vate, because  he  was  at  Marly.  Their  carriages  went,  close  side 
by  side,  for  she  almost  never  entered  a  chariot  ;  the  king  alone  in 
his,  she  in  a  sedan  chair.  If  their  suite  contained  the  Dauphiness 
or  the  Duchesse  de  Berr)%  or  the  king's  daughters,  they  followed 
or  surrounded  them  on  foot,  or  if  they  entered  a  chariot  with  some 
ladies,  it  was  to  follow  at  a  distance,  never  to  overtake.  Often  the 
king  walked  on  foot  beside  the  chair.  At  every  moment  he  took 
off  his  hat,  and  lowered  it  to  speak  to  Mme  de  Maintenon  or  to 
reply  to  her  if  she  spoke  to  him,  which  she  did  less  frequently 
than  he,  who  had  always  something  to  say  or  point  out.  As  she 
feared  the  air  even  in  the  finest  and  calmest  weather,  she  pushed 
up  the  glass  at  the  side,  every  time,  with  three  fingers,  and  closed 
it  immediately.     When  the  chair  was  set  down  for  her  to  see  the 


136  DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 

new  fountain,  there  was  the  same  behavior.  At  such  times,  the 
Dauphiness  often  used  to  perch  on  the  front  pole,  and  begin  a 
conversation,  but  the  front  glass  ahva)'s  remained  closed.  At  the 
end  of  the  promenade,  the  king  escorted  Mme  de  Maintenon  to 
near  the  clrateau,  took  his  leave  of  her,  and  continued  his  prom- 
enade."— St.  Sif/io/i,  ''  Menioires,'"  1715. 

In  all  royal  palaces,  even  at  the  present  clay,  society  is 
probably  drearier  than  anywhere  else,  but  it  was  never 
duller  than  at  Marly.  "  On  apprend  a  se  taire  a  Marly," 
we  find  the  lively  Duchesse  d'Orleans  writing  to  her  fam- 
ily; "souvent,  la  plupart  du  temps  meme,  on  est  seize 
ou  dix-sept  a  table,  et  on  n'entend  pas  un  mot."  On  Feb- 
ruary 5,  171 1,  "Madame"  writes  from  Marly: — 

"On  no  side  is  there  any  conversation;  at  Meudon  we 
speak  under  our  breath  ;  Monseigneur  talks  very  little,  so  does 
the  king,  I  believe  the  former  counts  his  words,  and  is  resolved 
never  to  pass  a  certain  number.  At  St.  Cloud  no  more  talk  than 
elsewhere.  All  the  ladies  have  such  a  dread  of  saying  anything 
that  can  displease  here,  and  prevent  them  going  to  Marly,  that 
they  only  speak  of  cards  and  dress,  which  seems  to  me  tiresome 
enough." 

Mme  de  Maintenon  wrote  : — 

"Why  cannot  I  give  you  all  my  experience  !  Why  cannot  I 
make  you  see  the  ennui  that  devours  the  great,  and  the  trouble 
which  they  have  to  fill  their  time  !  " — Lettres,  iii.  152. 

Marly  was  the  scene  of  several  of  the  most  tragic 
events  in  the  life  of  Louis  XIV.  "  Tout  est  mort  ici,  la 
vie  en  est  otee,"  wrote  the  Comtesse  de  Caylus  (niece  of 
Mme  de  Maintenon)  from  Marly  to  the  Princesse  des  Ur- 
sins,  after  the  death  of  the  Duchesse  de  Bourgogne,  And, 
in  a  few  days  afterwards.  Marly  was  the  scene  of  the 
sudden  death  of  the  Dauphin  (Due  de  Bourgogne),  the 
beloved  pupil  of  Fenelon.  Early  in  the  morning  after  the 
death  of  his  wife,  he  wa*s  persuaded,  "  malade  et  navre  de 
la  plus  intime  et  de  la  plus  amere  douleur,"  to  follow  the 


DEATH   OF    THE   DUG  DE   BOURGOGNE 


m 


king  to  Marly,  where  he  entered  his  own  room  by  a  win- 
dow on  the  ground  floor. 

"  Mme  de  Maintcnon  came  soon  ;  judge  what  was  the  anguish 
of  this  interview  ;  she  could  not  remain  long  and  departed,  .  .  . 
A  few  moments  afterwards  he  was  told  that  the  king  was  awake  ; 
the  tears  he  had  checked  swelled  in  his  eyes.  I  approached  and 
signed  to  him  to  go,  and  then  proposed  it  to  him  in  a  low  voice. 
Seeing  that  he  did  not  move  and  was  silent,  I  ventured  to  take 
his  arm,  and  represent  that  sooner  or  later  he  must  see  the  king, 
who  was  expecting  him.  .  .  .  He  gave  a  heartrending  glance 
and  went. 

"  Every  one  who  was  then  at  Marly,  a  very  small  number, 
was  in  the  grand  saloon.  Princes,  princesses,  grandes  entrees, 
were  in  the  little  saloon,  between  the  apartments  of  the  king 
and  Mme  de  Maintenon  ;  she  was  in  her  chamber,  but,  informed 
of  the  king's  waking,  entered  alone  his  apartments,  crossing  the 
little  saloon,  and  all  there  entered  soon  afterwards.  The  Dau- 
phin, who  came  in  by  the  cabinets,  found  everybody  in  the 
king's  chamber,  who,  when  he  saw  him,  called  him  to  him  to 
embrace  him  tenderly  and  repeatedly.  These  first  moments  of 
emotion  passed  in  words,  broken  by  tears  and  sobs. 

"  The  king,  soon  after,  looked  at  the  Dauphin,  and  was 
alarmed.  All  present  were  so  too,  the  physicians  more  than  the 
others.  ,  ,  .  The  king  ordered  him  to  go  to  bed  ;  he  obeyed, 
and  never  rose  again.  .  .  .  Inquietude  respecting  the  Dau- 
phin increased.  He  did  not  conceal  his  belief  that  he  would 
never  rise.  He  even  expressed  himself  so  more  than  once,  with  a 
resignation,  contempt  of  the  world,  and  all  that  is  great  therein, 
submission  and  love  of  God  that  were  beyond  compare.  No  ex- 
pression can  convey  the  general  consternation.   ... 

"  Friday  morning,  February  i8,  1712,  I  heard  very  early  that 
the  Dauphin,  who  had  waited  impatiently  for  midnight,  had 
heard  mass  soon  after,  had  received  the  communion,  and  passed 
two  hours  after  in  solemn  communion  with  God  ;  that  then  he 
received  extreme  unction,  finally,  that  he  died  at  half-past  eight, 

"  He  knew  the  king  perfectly,  he  respected  him,  and,  at  the 
end  of  his  life,  loved  him  as  a  son,  paying  him  the  attentive 
court  of  a  subject  who  knew,  however,  what  he  was.  He  culti- 
vated Mme  de  Maintenon  with  all  the  attentions  her  situation  de- 
manded. He  loved  the  princes,  his  brothers,  with  tenderness, 
and  his  wife  most  passionately.     The  grief  for  her  loss  penetrated 


138  DA  YS  NEAR  PARIS 

his  inmost  vitals.  His  piety  survived  by  prodigious  efforts. 
The  sacrifice  was  entire  but  not  bloodless.  In  this  terrible  afflic- 
tion, he  displayed  nothing  mean,  small,  or  indecent.  We  saw  a 
man,  beside  himself,  who  forced  himself  to  bear  a  calm  exterior 
and  succumbed  to  the  effort. 

"  The  days  of  this  affliction  were  soon  abridged.  .  .  .  But, 
great  God  !  what  a  spectacle  you  gave  in  him,  that  cannot  be  re- 
vealed in  all  its  secret  sublimity,  which  you  alone  can  give, 
and  the  price  of  which  you  alone  can  tell  !  What  an  imitation 
of  Christ  on  the  cross  !  I  speak  not  merely  in  regard  to  death 
and  sufferings  ;  it  rose  far  above  that.  What  tender,  calm  views  ! 
What  excess  of  resignation,  what  eager  thanksgivings  for  being 
preserved  from  the  throne  and  the  account  he  would  have  to 
give  !  what  ardent  love  of  God  !  what  a  piercing  insight  into  his 
own  nothingness  and  sins  !  what  a  grand  idea  of  infinite  mercy  ! 
what  religious  and  holy  fear  !  what  modest  confidence  !  what 
sage  peace,  what  readings,  what  ceaseless  prayers  !  what  ardent 
desire  for  the  last  sacraments  !  what  profound  composure,  what 
invincible  patience,  what  sweetness,  what  constant  goodness  to 
all  who  drew  near  !  what  pure  charity  that  urged  him  to  go  to 
God  !  France  fell,  finally,  under  this  last  chastisement ;  God 
showed  her  a  prince  she  did  not  merit.  The  world  was  not 
worthy  of  him,  he  was  already  ripe  for  a  blessed  eternit3\" — St. 
Simon,  "  Afemoires." 

It  was  also  at  Marly — "  la  funeste  Marly  " — that  the 
Due  de  Berry,  the  younger  grandson  of  Louis  XIV.,  and 
husband  of  the  profligate  daughter  of  the  Due  d'Orleans — 
afterwards  Regent,  died,  with  great  suspieion  of  poison,  in 
1 7 14.  The  MS.  memorials  of  Mary  Beatrice  by  a  sister 
of  Chaillot,  describe  how,  when  Louis  XIV.  was  mourn- 
ing his  beloved  grandchildren,  and  that  queen,  whom  he 
had  always  liked  and  respected,  had  lost  her  darling 
daughter  Louisa,  she  went  to  visit  him  at  Marly,  where 
"they  laid  aside  all  Court  etiquette,  weeping  together  in 
their  common  grief,  because,  as  the  Queen  said,  '  We  saw 
that  the  aged  were  left,  and  that  Death  had  swept  away 
the  young.'"  St.  Simon  depicts  the  last  walk  of  the  king 
in  the  gardens  of  Marly — "  I'etrange  ouvrage  de  ses  mains  " 


ABANDONMENT   OF  MARLY  139 

— on    August    10,    1 7 15.      He  went  away  that   evening  to 
Versailles,  where  he  died  on  September  i. 

Marly  was  abandoned  during  the  whole  time  of  the 
Regency,  and  was  only  saved  from  total  destruction  in 
1 7 17,  when  the  Re'gent  Philippe  d'Orle'ans  had  ordered  its 
demolition,  by  the  spirited  remonstrance  of  St.  Simon — 

"  Let  him  consider  how  many  millions  have  been  thrown  into 
that  old  sewer  to  make  a  fairy  palace,  unique  in  all  Europe  by 
its  form,  unique  by  the  beauty  of  its  fountains,  unique,  too,  by 
the  reputation  that  the  late  king  gave  it.  Let  him  think  that  it 
was  one  of  the  objects  of  the  curiosity  of  all  strangers  of  every 
quality  that  came  to  France  ;  that  this  demolition  will  echo 
through  Europe  Avith  reproaches  which  mean  reasons  of  economy 
would  not  change  ;  that  all  France  would  be  outraged  by  seeing 
itself  deprived  of  so  distinguished  an  ornament." — ^^Me'tnoires." 

The  great  pavilion  itself  only  contained,  as  we  have 
seen,  a  very  small  number  of  chambers.  The  querulous 
Smollett,  who  visited  Marly  in  1763,  speaks  of  it  as  "  No 
more  than  a  pigeon-house  in  respect  to  a  palace."  But  it 
was  only  intended  as  the  residence  of  the  king. 

"  6th  Dec,  16S7.  At  Marly  there  are  no  rooms  except  to  sleep 
and  dress  in  ;  that  done,  all  the  rest  is  for  the  public.  In  the 
king's  apartment  there  is  music  ;  in  that  of  the  Dauphin  meals  at 
midday  and  in  the  evening  ;  there,  too,  is  the  billiard-table,  always 
filled.  In  the  apartment  of  Monsieur  is  hazard,  all  the  backgam- 
mon-tables and  card-tables  ;  in  mine  are  the  shopkeepers,  and 
there  a  fair  is  held." — Correspondance  de  Madatne. 

"The  thing  that  strikes  me  is  the  contrast  between  delicate 
art  in  the  arbors  and  groves,  and  wild  nature  in  a  spreading  mass 
of  tall  trees  that  dominate  them  and  form  the  background.  The 
pavilions,  separated  and  half-buried  in  a  forest,  seem  to  be  the 
abodes  of  different  subaltern  genii,  whose  master  occupies  the 
middle  one.  This  gives  the  whole  an  air  of  fairyland  that  pleases 
me." — Diderot,  '' Lettres  a  Mile  Volland.'" 

During  the  repairs  necessary  in  the  reign  of  Louis  XV., 
who  built  Choisy,  and  never  lived  at  Marly,  the  cascade 
which  fell  behind  the  great  pavilion  was  removed.     Mme 


140  DA  YS  NEAR  PARIS 

Campan  describes  the  later  Marly  of  Louis  XVI.,  under 
whom  the  "  voyages  "  had  become  one  of  the  great  bur- 
dens and  expenses  of  royal  life.  The  Court  of  Louis  XVL 
was  here  for  the  last  time  on  June  ii,  1789,  but  in  the  lat- 
ter years  of  Louis  XVI.  M.  de  Noailles,  governor  of  St. 
Germain,  was  permitted  to  lend  the  smaller  pavilions  fur- 
nished to  his  friends  for  the  summer  months.  Marly  per- 
ished with  the  monarchy,  and  was  sold  at  the  Revolution, 
when  the  statues  of  its  gardens  were  removed  to  the  Tui- 
leries.  A  cotton  mill  was  for  a  time  established  in  the 
royal  pavilion  ;  then  all  the  buildings  were  pulled  down 
and  the  gardens  sold  in  lots  ! 

Still,  the  site  is  worth  visiting.  The  Grille  Royale^ 
now  a  simple  wooden  gate  between  two  pillars  with  vases, 
opens  on  the  road  from  St.  Germain  to  Versailles,  at  the 
extremity  of  the  aqueduct  of  Marly.  Passing  this,  one 
finds  one's  self  in  an  immense  circular  enclosure,  the  walls 
of  which  support  the  forest  on  every  side. 

"  He  seems  to  see  a  vast  circus,  cleared  and  fortified  in  the 
midst  of  the  woods,  where  the  work  of  man  has  come  to  add 
itself  audaciously  to  those  of  nature.  Pillars,  here  and  there  cut 
down,  give  an  idea  of  the  porticoes  that  ought  to  adorn  this  en- 
trance ;  beyond  them,  by  gaps  that  time  has  made,  the  eye 
plunges,  right  and  left,  into  greater  constructions,  which  are  lost 
in  the  thick  shade  of  the  trees.  Opposite  the  gate  by  which  one 
enters  is  a  view  still  more  surprising  ;  the  road  sinks  into  a  gulf, 
where,  from  all  points  of  the  horizon,  the  forest  seems  to  lower 
itself  ;  the  tall  trees,  which,  even  in  the  midst  of  their  wild  lib- 
erty, witness,  by  a  certain  regularity,  half  effaced,  to  the  fact  that 
they  were  one  day  subject  to  the  axe,  seem  to  hang,  one  over  the 
other,  from  the  height  of  the  steps  of  a  gigantic  amphitheatre,  and 
all  to  incline  towards  the  power  that  had  forced  nature,  as  well  as 
nations,  to  obey  its  commands. 

"  We  hastened  to  penetrate  into  the  depths  of  this  abyss  of 
verdure,  the  centre  of  all  the  grand  landscape,  made  by  man,  by 
which  it  is  surrounded.  We  descend  between  two  walls  that 
bear  oaks  and  birches  centuries  old  ;  we  come  to  a  second  circular 


THE    SITE    OF  MARLY  j^i 

enclosure,  which  we  are  tempted  to  take  for  the  ruins  of  a  palace, 
from  the  great  undulations  of  verdure  which  hide  its  remains. 
The  slightness  of  the  opening  which  the  view  has  at  this  spot 
warns  3-ou  to  descend  farther  ;  and,  after  having  crossed  halls  of 
greenery  left  to  chance,  you  arrive  at  a  grander  pile,  from  the  top 
of  which  the  eye  embraces  a  vast  horizon.  The  ruins  on  which 
you  stand  evidently  trace  a  circular  form,  and  as  far  as  the  eye 
can  reach,  beyond  the  slopes  that  tower  above  you,  beyond  the 
plains  watered  by  the  Seine,  hidden  at  the  foot  of  the  hill,  the 
mountains,  following  the  prolonged  line  of  the  heights  of  St. 
Germain,  round  out  their  delicate  lines  that  disappear  towards 
the  woods  of  Montmorency.  This  time  you  have  beneath  your 
feet  the  famous  palace  where  Louis  XIV.  concealed,  in  the  midst 
of  fetes,  the  sadness  of  his  old  age,  and,  in  every  line  which 
seems  to  repeat  at  will  the  same  harmonious  curve,  there  is  re- 
vealed the  original  plan  which  made  Marly  the  king's  delight, 
when,  disgusted  with  the  theatrical  and  too  public  pomp  of  Ver- 
sailles, he  sought,  in  the  depths  of  a  better  defended  retreat, 
pleasures  more  tranquil. 

"  You  descend  from  the  heap  formed  by  the  ruins  of  the 
palace  of  Louis  XIV.  ;  in  the  midst  of  halls  of  verdure,  which 
form  pendants  to  those  already  traversed,  you  perceive,  half 
erect,  half  lying  in  the  grass,  the  remains  of  buildings  corre- 
sponding to  those  of  the  second  circular  enclosure  through  which 
you  have  passed.  Behind  the  palace,  on  the  indented  hill,  you 
see,  covered  with  moss,  numerous  steps  over  which  a  whole  river 
of  water  ought  to  flow.  On  either  side,  roads,  cut  beneath  the 
roots  of  the  trees  and  bordered  by  great  walls  to  sustain  the 
earth,  disclose  views  of  a  forest  arranged  on  a  plan  in  which  the 
round  line  is  always  repeated.  But  you  must  go  to  the  front 
of  the  palace  itself  to  find  the  most  beautiful  spots  in  the  gardens. 

"You  descend  from  terrace  to  terrace  ;  each  terrace  used  to 
support  a  lawn,  on  the  sides  of  which,  to  right  and  left,  ran  an 
avenue  that  made  the  whole  circuit  of  the  amphitheatre  of  the 
garden. 

"  The  first  terrace,  crowned  by  the  chateau,  still  displays  its 
marvellous  trees,  once  trimmed  into  arbors,  of  which  their  bases 
preserve  the  outline,  flourishing,  above  these  ancient  vaults,  with 
new  trunks,  free  and  vigorous,  that  seem  a  second  forest  grafted 
on  the  first. 

"The  second  terrace  distinctly  indicates  the  two  lateral 
basins  which  adorned  it.    In  the  midst  of  the  huge  birches,  which 


1^2  DAYS  NEAR   PARIS 

once  covered  with  their  shade  elegant  shells  sculptured  from 
marble  or  bronze,  the  water,  whose  conduits  have  been  found 
impossible  to  destroy,  rises  naturally  from  the  earth,  which  has 
kept  the  form  of  the  ancient  buildings  ;  at  the  spot,  where  the  jet 
of  water  darted  up  towards  the  dome  of  these  groves,  rushes  are 
growing  thickly  ;  the  pond  lilies  bloom  and  cover  this  tranquil 
lake,  which  is  not  agitated,  except  occasionally  by  the  hands  of 
the  village  washerwomen. 

"  The  third  and  fourth  terraces  still  present  the  remains  of 
vast  basins  that  occupied  the  greatest  part  of  them  ;  their  forms 
are  sharply  outlined  to  the  eye  by  the  sinking  of  the  ground,  and 
also  by  the  fresher  green  of  the  plants  that  grow  more  freely  in 
places  once  enriched  by  the  waters." — Magasin  pittoresqiie  XVI. 
Mars,  1884. 

The  Forest  of  Marly  has  been  greatly  curtailed  of  late 
years.  The  parts  worth  visiting  are  perhaps  best  reached 
by  the  Porte  de  I'Etang-la-Ville  (4  k,  from  St.  Germain), 
which  has  a  railway  station,  named  thus  from  a  neighbor- 
ing village.  If  the  forest  be  entered  at  Foiirgueux,  one 
soon  reaches  the  Desert  de  Retz,  the  gardens  of  which  are 
lauded  by  Delille. 

As  late  as  the  time  of  Louis  XIV.  the  forest  of  Marly 
abounded  in  wolves.  "  Madame  "  (Duchesse  d'Orleans) 
describes  in  her  letters  going  to  hunt  them  with  the  Dau- 
phin, and  how  (February,  1709)  they  devoured  a  courier 
and  his  horse. 


The  return  from  Marly  may  be  varied  by  taking  the 
railway  by  St.  Cloud  to  Paris.  The  line  passes  at  2  /^  (19  >^. 
from  Paris)  Louveciennes  (Mons  Lupicinus),  a  pretty  vil- 
lage, where  Louis  XV.  built  a  delightful  villa  for  Mme  du 
Barry,  which  she  was  allowed  to  retain  under  Louis  XVL, 
and  where  she  always  walked  about  dressed  in  white  mus- 
lin in  summer  and  percale  in  winter. 

"  The  Comtesse  du  Barry  never  forgot  the  indulgent  treat- 
ment   she  met  at  the  court  of  Louis  XIV.  ;  she  let  the  queen 


LOUVECIENNES  143 

know,  during  the  most  violent  crises  of  the  Revolution,  that  there 
was  not  in  France  a  woman  more  stricken  with  grief  than  she  for 
all  that  her  queen  had  to  suffer  ;  that  the  honor  she  had  enjoyed 
of  living  many  years  near  the  throne,  and  the  infinite  goodness 
of  the  king  and  queen  had  attached  her  so  sincerely  to  the  cause 
of  royalty  that  she  begged  the  queen  to  grant  her  the  honor  of 
disposing  of  all  she  possessed.  Without  accepting  these  offers, 
their  Majesties  were  touched  by  her  gratitude." — Mme  Campan. 

Mme  du  Barry  escaped  in  the  early  days  of  the  Revo- 
lution, but  was  persuaded  to  return  to  Louveciennes,  not — 
as  is  usually  said — to  look  for  her  jewels,  as  they  were 
already  sold  in  England,  but  to  join  her  admirer,  the  Due 
de  Brissac,  who  was  murdered  by  the  people  at  Versailles, 
and  his  head  exhibited  on  a  pike  under  her  window.  She 
was  herself  betrayed  by  the  negro  boy  Zamore,  upon  whom 
she  had  heaped  innumerable  benefits,  and  was  guillotined 
with  the  final  supplication,  "  Ne  me  faites  pas  du  mal, 
monsieur  le  bourreau  !  "  upon  her  lips.  The  beautiful  pa- 
vilion of  her  villa,  built  by  Ledoux,  still  exists,  but  the  in- 
terior is  much  altered. 


V. 
POISSY  AND  MANTES,  ARGENTEUIL. 

ON  the  Chemin  de  Fer  de  Rouen  ;  b)'  rail  from  the  Gave  St. 
Lazare.  Poissy  and  Mantes  form  a  most  delightful  day's 
excursion  from  Paris,  though  architects  and  artists  will  wish  to 
stay  longer  at  Mantes.     Vigny  requires  a  separate  excursion. 

The  line  passes — 

I']  k.  Maiso?is-Laffitte. — The  magnificent  chateau  of 
Maisons  was  built  by  Francois  Mansart  for  Rene  de  Lon- 
gueil,  Surintendant  des  Finances.  Voltaire  frequently 
staid  there  with  the  President  de  Maisons,  and  nearly  died 
there  of  the  small-pox.  On  his  recovery,  he  had  scarcely 
left  the  chateau  to  set  out  on  his  return  to  Paris,  when  the 
room  he  had  occupied  and  the  adjoining  chambers  were 
destroyed  by  fire.  In  1778  the  chateau  was  bought  by  the 
Comte  d'Artois,  and  an  apartment  was  arranged  there  for 
each  of  the  royal  family.  Maisons  was  sold  as  national 
property  at  the  Revolution,  and  has  since  belonged  to  the 
Due  de  Montebello,  and  to  the  banker  Laffitte,  by  whom 
part  of  the  park  has  been  cut  up  for  villas. 

As  Maisons  is  approached  by  the  railway,  there  is  a 
fine  view  (on  right)  of  the  stately  chateau  rising  above  the 
west  bank  of  the  Seine,  with  a  highly  picturesque  mill  of 
the  same  date  striding  across  an  arm  of  the  river  in  the 
foreground. 


POISSY  14^ 

"The  chateau  of  Maisons,  built  by  Fran9ois  Mansart  about 
the  year  1658,  is  one  of  those  happy  designs  which  seem  to  have 
linked  together  the  style  of  Francis  I.  with  that  of  Louis  XIV. 
It  combines  the  playfulness  of  outline  which  prevailed  at  an 
earlier  age  with  a  strict  adherence  to  the  proprieties  of  the  Orders 
as  then  understood.  The  roof  is  enormous,  but  relieved  by  the 
chimneys  and  by  being  broken  into  masses  ;  while  the  whole 
effect  of  the  design  is  that  it  is  the  house  of  a  nobleman,  of  sin- 
gular elegance,  neither  affecting  templar  grandeur  nor  descending 
into  littleness." — Fergiisson. 

\\k.  is  Sartroitville,  where  the  church  has  a  central 
romanesque  octagon,  with  a  stone  spire  of  later  date. 
The  nave  piers  are  cylindrical,  the  arches  pointed  tran- 
sitional. 

2  2/1".  ConJla7is-St.-Honorme. — This  place  receives  its 
first  name  from  its  situation  at  the  confluence  of  the  Seine 
and  Oise ;  its  second  from  the  shrine  of  St.  Honorine, 
brought  hither  by  a  native  of  Graville  for  protection  from 
the  Normans  in  898  :  her  relics  are  still  carried  in  pro- 
cession on  Ascension  Day.  The  parish  church  of  St. 
Madou  has  an  admirable  romanesque  tower  of  the  XII,  c. 
In  the  choir  is  the  tomb  of  Jean  I.,  Seigneur  de  Mont- 
morency, and  near  it  the  XIV.  c.  statue  of  Mathieu  IV. 
de  Montmorency,  Admiral  and  High  Chamberlain  of 
France,  1304.  A  tower,  called  La  Baronnie,  marks  the 
site  of  the  priory  of  St.  Honorine. 

27  >^.  Poissy  {Hotel  de  Rouen^  right  of  station:  very 
humble),  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Seine,  was  the  seat  of  a 
very  ancient  royal  residence,  destroyed  by  Charles  V.  If 
St.  Louis  was  not  born  here  he  was  certainly  baptized 
here,  and  was  wont  to  sign  himself  "  Louis  de  Poissy." 

Close  to  the  railway,  in  the  centre  of  the  tiny  town, 
rises  the  noble  Church.  Late  romanesque,  with  flamboyant 
additions,  it  has  a  most  striking  outline.  The  older  por- 
tions— the  nave,  the  apsidal  choir  with  its  two  apsides,  and 


146 


DA  YS  NEAR  PARIS 


the  west  and  central  towers,  date  from  the  XI.  c.,  though 
the  massive  west  tower,  supporting  a  conical  stone  spire, 
and  the  two  first  bays  of  the  nave,  were  rebuilt,  on  the  old 
lines,  in  the  XVII  c.  The  nave  chapels  are  XV.  c.  The 
west  tower  formerly  serv^ed  as  a  porch,  but  this  is  now 


WEST   TOWER,    POISSY. 


blocked  up,  and  the  principal  entrance  is  by  a  magnificent 
early  XVI.  c.  porch  on  the  south,  with  open  arches  on  two 
sides  :  it  has  been  injured  externally  by  coarse  restoration, 
but  is  untouched  within. 


CHURCH  OF  POISSY 


147 


"The  spire  of  the  central  clock  tower  is  of  wood,  like  some 
spires  of  Norman  belfries  in  an  analogous  situation,  and  there 
is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  it  was  originally  designed  in  stone. 
The  open  story  of  the  octagonal  belfry  is  composed  of  coupled 
arcades  on  the  larger,  and  of  simple  arcades  on  the  smaller  sides. 
The  base  of  this  clock  tower  does  not  support  a  cupola  or  lan- 
tern, like  the  central  towers  of  the  Rhine  or  of  Normandy  ;  it  is 
only  the  lower  story  of  the  belfry  above  the  vaulting  of  the  nave." 
—  Viollet-le-Dnc. 

The  interior  is  exceedingly  beautiful  and  has  been  well 
restored.  A  number  of  early  statues  of  saints  are  full  of 
quaint  character.  The  romanesque  chapel  on  the  north  of 
the  choir  contains  a  fragment  of  the  font  in  which  St.  Louis 
was  baptized. 

"  C'est  pourquoy,  estant  un  jour  en  ce  lieu  depuis  qu'il  fut 
roy,  11  dit  avec  joye  a  ses  amis  que  c'estoit  la  qu'il  avoit  receu  le 
plus  grand  honneur  qu'il  eust  jamais  eu.  C'est  pourquoy  lors- 
qu'il  ecrivoit  en  secret  a  ses  amis  particuliers,  et  qu'il  vouloit 
supprimer  sa  qualite  de  roy,  il  se  nommoit  Louis  de  Poissy  ou 
le  seigneur  de  Poissi.  On  dit  qu'il  se  plaisoit  particulierement 
en  ce  lieu." — Le  N'ain  de  Tilletnont. 

A  considerable  part  at  least  of  the  rest  of  the  font  has 
been  taken  as  dust  in  glasses  of  water  by  the  faithful  as 
a  cure  for  fever.  In  the  same  chapel  is  a  tombstone,  with 
a  very  curious  epitaph,  recording  how  Remy  Renault, 
1630,  was  twice  dead  and  twice  alive,  how,  after  having 
been  consigned  to  the  tomb,  he  was  resuscitated  by  the 
devotion  of  his  son,  expressed  in  ardent  prayer  to  St. 
Genevieve,  and  rose  again  a  second  Lazarus,  to  be  called 
"Le  ressuscite."  His  son,  a  second  Remy,  who  ordained 
special  worship  to  St.  Genevieve  for  her  favor,  now  rests 
with  him. 

In  the  opposite  chapel  of  St.  Louis  are  relics  of  the 
sainted  king.     This  chapel  formerly  had  a  stained-glass 


148  J^A  YS  NEAR  PARIS 

window  representing  the  birth  of  St.  Louis,  and  beneath 
were  the  XVI.  c.  lines — 

"  Sainte-Louis  fut  un  enfant  de  Poissy, 
Et  baptise  en  la  presente  eglise  ; 
Les  fonts  en  sont  gardes  encore  ici, 
Et  honores  comme  relique  exquise." 

The  apsidal  chapel,  filled  with  ex-votos  to  the  Virgin, 
has  modern  stained-glass  illustrative  of  the  life  of  St. 
Louis. 

A  little  behind  the  church  is  a  fine  old  gateway,  flanked 
by  two  round  towers,  the  principal  existing  remnant  of  the 
famous  Abbey  of  Poissy,  which  PhiHppe  le  Bel  founded  in 
1304,  in  the  place  of  an  earlier  Augustinian  monastery 
founded  by  Constance  of  Normandy,  wife  of  King  Robert. 
In  its  refectory,  Catherine  de  Medicis  convoked  the  Col- 
loque  de  Poissy  in  1560,  when  thirty  Protestants,  with  The- 
odore de  Beze  at  their  head,  disputed  upon  religious  sub- 
jects with  the  papal  legate^  sixteen  cardinals,  forty  bishops, 
and  a  number  of  other  theologians.  Nothing  remains  of 
the  magnificent  abbey  church,  a  marvel  of  architectural 
beauty,  begun  by  Philippe  le  Bel  and  finished  by  Philippe 
de  Valois,  which  was  pulled  down  in  the  beginning  of  the 
XIX.  c.  It  contained  the  tombs  of  Queen  Constance, 
Philippe  le  Bel,  Agnes  de  Meranie,  and  of  Philippe  and 
Jean  of  France,  children  of  Louis  VIII.  and  Blanche  of 
Castile.  A  pewter  urn,  containing  the  heart  of  the  founder, 
Philippe  le  Bel,  was  found  during  some  repairs  in  1687. 
Reached  by  the  abbey  gate  is  the  house  occupied,  for 
thirty  years,  by  the  famous  artist  Meissonier. 

On  the  right  of  the  station  is  the  entrance  to  ih.Q  Bridge 
(originally  of  thirty-seven  arches)  built  by  St.  Louis,  but 
all  its  character  is  destroyed  by  its  being  lowered  and  by  the 
substitution  of  a  cast-iron  parapet  for  the  original  of  stone. 


MEDAN 


U^ 


The  famous  Cattle-market  of  Poissy,  founded  by  St. 
Louis,  is  still  held  every  Thursday. 

The  line  passes  (left)  Medan^  with  a  chateau  dating  from 
the  XV.  c.,  and  in  which  pavilions  of  that  date  are  con- 
nected by  galleries  of  the  time  of  Henri  IV.  In  the 
XVII.  c.  church  is  the  font  of  the  famous  royal  church 
of  St.  Paul  in  Paris,  inscribed — 

"  A  ces  foils  furent  une  fois 
Baptisez  pluseurs  dues  et  rois, 
Princes,  contes,  barons,  prelatz 
Et  autres  gens  de  tous  estatz. 
Et  afin  que  ce  on  cognoisse, 
lis  servoient  en  la  paroisse 
Royal  de  Saint  Pol  de  Paris, 
Ou  les  Roys  se  tenoient  jadis  : 
Entre  autres  y  fut  notablement 
Baptise  honourablement 
Le  sage  roy  Charles-le-Quint 
Et  son  fils  qui  aprez  lui  vint, 
Charles  le  large  bie[n]  [ai]me 
Sixieme  de  ce  nom  cla[m]e." 

35  >^.  Triel. — A  considerable  place  under  the  hills,  on  the 
right.  The  village  of  Vernoiiillet  (left  of  the  station)  has  a 
steeple  of  good  outline  rising  from  a  romanesque  tower. 
A  number  of  ruined  emigres,  on  their  return  to  France 
after  the  Revolution,  united  to  buy  its  chateau,  and  spent 
the  rest  of  their  lives  there  in  happy  harmony  !  The 
adjoining  village  of  Vemeiiil  has  a  central  romanesque 
tower  with  late  additions.  The  cruciform  church  of  Triel 
itself  is  chiefly  of  the  XIV.  c,  with  a  plain  central  tower  : 
a  street  passes  beneath  the  lofty  choir.  Vaux  (i  ^.)  has 
a  romanesque  tower  and  transept,  and  an  elegant  semi- 
circular early  pointed  apse  ;  the  nave,  which  has  aisles, 
but  no  clerestory,  is  XIV.  c. 

41  /^.  Meulan-les-Mureaux. — The  station  is  at  Mureaux, 


l^o  DAVS  NEAR  PARIS 

where  the  modern  church  contains  six  curious  XIII  c. 
columns :  of  these,  four,  at  the  entrance,  support  a  kind 
of  triumphal  arch  of  three  openings.  A  stone  bridge  con- 
nects Mureaux  with  Meulan,  once  the  chief  town  of  a 
countship,  which  was  united  to  the  crown  of  France  by 
Philippe  Auguste  in  1203.  Louis  XII I.  established  a  con- 
vent of  the  Annunciation  here  for  Charlotte  du  Puy  de 
Jesus-Maria,  whose  prayers  were  believed  to  have  re- 
moved the  barrenness  of  Anne  of  Austria.  The  church  of 
Notre  Dame^  in  the  lower  town,  is  XIV.  c.  and  XV.  c.  ; 
that  of  St,  Nicolas,  on  the  hill  (Le  Haut  Meulan),  has  a 
XII.  c.  ambulatory.  Near  Notre  Dame  is  a  good  XIV  a 
house.  On  the  island  called  Le  Fort,  are  remains  of  a 
XV.  c.  chapel  of  St.  Jacques,  and  of  a  castle  of  which  Du 
Guesclin  overthrew  the  donjoji,  when  it  was  defended  by 
the  partisans  of  Charles  le  Mauvais. 

5  k,  to  the  north,  occupying  a  square  eminence,  is  the 
interesting  Chateau  de  Vigny,  built  by  Cardinal  Georges 
d'Amboise. 

"The  Chateau  of  Vigny  quite  resembles  those  of  the  XV.  c, 
only  there  may  be  remarked  that  the  towers  were  applied  to  the 
walls  as  much  for  ornament  as  for  a  means  of  defence.  The  large 
windows,  equally  distributed  in  all  parts  of  the  exterior  walls, 
prove  how  much  attacks  were  dreaded. 

"This  beautiful  chateau,  built  on  a  site  cut  square,  presents 
the  form  of  an  oblong  square.  The  longer  side,  which  serves  as 
a  fagade,  is  adorned  by  four  towers  at  equal  distances,  sur- 
mounted by  machicolations,  and  crowned  by  very  tall  and  very 
elegant  conical  roofs.  The  gate  of  entrance  is  in  the  middle, 
between  the  two  central  towers,  in  a  kind  of  advanced  work  or 
pavilion,  which  recalls,  by  its  position,  the  donjons  of  certain 
chateaux  of  the  XII.  c. 

"  Many  of  the  windows  are  surmounted  by  imitation  arcades, 
and  adorned  with  wreaths  of  foliage  which  proclaim  sufficiently 
the  last  years  of  the  XV.  century,  and  the  beginning  of  the  XVI," 
— De  CauDiont,  ''Arc/iitecttcre  militaire." 


MANTES 


151 


49/^.  Epone. — The  chateau  belonged  to  the  family  of 
Crequi.  The  church  has  an  octagonal  romanesque  tower, 
containing  an  XL  c.  portal :  two  other  portals  are  XIL  c. 
An  omnibus  runs  from  the  station  of  Epone  to  that  of 
Villiers-Neauphle  on  the  line  from  Paris  to  Dreux,  by  the 
valley  of  the  Mauldre,  passing  {\2k.)  Aiibiay^  where  the 
church  contains  an  ancient  tabernacle  beautifully  sculpt- 
ured; and  (20 /C'.)  Maule^  where  the  church  was  built  1070- 
1118,  has  a  tower  of  1547,  and  covers  an  XL  c.  crypt:  a 
beautiful  XV.  c.  chapel  serves  as  a  sacristy.  The  chateau 
dates  from  Louis  XIIL 

57  /&.  Mantes.  (Hotel  du  Gra?td  Cerf,  a  good  old-fash- 
ioned inn:  du  Soleil  d' Or.)  "Mantes  la  jolie,"  of  the 
old  topographers^,  is  a  charming  and  interesting  old  town. 
It  was  in  1087,  after  burning  Mantes,  which  he  had 
reclaimed  from  Philippe  I.  of  France,  that  William  the 
Conqueror,  whilst  riding  proudly  round  the  town,  received 
the  injury  of  which  he  died  a  few  days  after  at  Rouen. 

"  While  he  galloped  across  the  ruins,  his  horse  put  both  his  feet 
on  some  burning  materials  covered  by  cinders,  fell,  and  hurt  him 
in  the  belly.  The  excitement  he  had  put  himself  in  by  riding  and 
shouting,  the  heat  of  the  fire  and  of  the  season  rendered  a  wound 
dangerous.  He  was  carried,  sick,  to  Rouen,  and,  thence,  to  a 
monastery  beyond  the  walls  of  the  city,  as  he  could  not  bear  the 
noise.  He  languished  for  six  weeks,  surrounded  by  physicians 
and  priests,  and,  his  illness  still  increasing,  he  sent  some  money 
to  Mantes  to  rebuild  the  churches  that  he  had  burned." — Augustin 
Thierry. 

The  noble  church  of  Notre  Dame  was  built  with  the 
money  sent  by  William  the  Conqueror,  and  was  again 
rebuilt  at  the  end  of  the  XIL  c.  at  the  same  time  as 
Notre  Dame  de  Paris,  to  which  it  has  a  great  resemblance. 
Its  fagade  shows  what  that  of  Paris  would  have  been  if 
its  completion  had  not  been  delayed  till  the  middle  of  the 


iS2 


DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 


XIII.  c.  Of  the  three  grand  portals,  two  are  admirable 
examples  of  the  XII.  c.  ;  that  on  the  right  was  rebuilt  in 
1300,  with  a  gable  copied  from  the  south  portal  of  Rouen 
cathedral,  which  adds  to  the  effect  of  the  building  by  its 
variety.  Above  the  three  portals  are  seven  arches,  of 
which  four  light  the  first  floors  of  the  two  towers.  Higher, 
is  a  large  window  in  each  tower,  and  in  the  centre  a  beauti- 
ful rose-window.  The  graceful  gallery  above,  of  slender 
lancet  arches,  is  comparatively  modern.     The  upper  story 


of  the  towers,  of  open  arches,  is  indescribably  light  and 
beautiful.  The  retired  space,  shaded  by  trees,  in  which  the 
church  stands,  recalls  an  English  cathedral  close  in  the 
charm  of  its  seclusion. 

The  church  has  no  transept,  and  originally  it  had  only 
a  simple  ambulatory,  with  no  radiating  chapels ;  the  five 
chapels  which  surround  the  choir  only  having  been  added 
in  the  XIV.  c.  The  clerestory  is  exceedingly  light,  and 
the  triforium,  covering  the  whole  space  of  the  aisles,  of 
great  width.     Two  leaden  coffins  recently  discovered  are 


MANTES  te^ 

supposed  to  contain  the  heart  and  entrails  of  Phihppe 
Auguste,  who  died  at  Mantes,  July  14,  1223.  Viollet-le- 
Duc  mentions  the  Chapelle  de  Navarre  on  the  south  of 
the  choir,  with  its  four  arches  meeting  at  a  central  pillar, 
as  one  of  the  finest  examples  of  the  XIV.  c.  in  the  He  de 
France.  Its  four  great  windows  are  beautiful  in  design, 
have  grand  fragments  of  stained  glass,  and  are  supported 
by  a  graceful  arcade.  Against  the  wall  of  the  north  aisle 
is  the  curious  incised  grave-stone  of  Robert  Gueribeau 
(1644),  founder  of  the  Ursuline  convent. 

"  The  magnificent  edifice  rises  on  an  inclined  space,  that 
might  be  described  as  bordered  by  ecclesiastical  dwellings,  but 
into  which  there  has,  nevertheless,  glided  like  an  intruder,  a 
pretty,  gallant,  charming  little  theatre  in  Pompadour  style,  sculpt- 
ured zxi^L  pompone'e  like  a  bit  of  Sevres  china." — Barron,  '' Les 
environs  de  Pafis." 

An  artist  will  find  attractive  subjects  in  the  noble  tower 
of  1340,  which  is  all  that  remains  of  the  great  church  of 
St.  Macloii,  destroyed  in  the  Revolution,  and  in  the  gothic 
entrance  (1344)  of  the  old  Hotel  de  Ville  (which  has  a 
stone  staircase  of  the  time  of  Charles  VIII.),  with  a  pretty 
renaissance  fountain  in  front  of  it.  Many  picturesque 
fragments  remain  of  the  ancient  walls  and  towers  with 
which  Mantes  was  surrounded  by  Charles  le  Mauvais  and 
Charles  le  Sage,  especially  the  Tour  de  St.  Martiji  and  an 
old  postern  gate  on  the  Quai  des  Cordeliers.  Of  the  other 
gditQs,  t\\Q  Porte  Cha?ite  I  Oie  stiW  exists.  There  is  a  very 
picturesque,  half-ruined  bridge  connecting  the  right  bank 
with  the  island  in  the  Seine,  whence  there  is  the  best  view 
of  Notre  Dame,  rising  in  gray  grandeur  above  the  broken 
outline  of  the  old  houses,  and  the  whole  mirrored  in  the 
Seine. 

Beyond  the  island,  with  its   pleasant  promenades,   a 


1^4  ^^^  ^'^  NEAR   PARIS 

second  bridge  leads  to  the  suburb  of  Limay,  which  has  a 
modern  niairie,  of  good  design,  and  a  church  chiefly  of 
the  XIII.  c.  and  XV.  c,  but  possessing  a  very  beautiful 
XII.  c.  tower  and  spire,  with  a  romanesque  chapel  be- 
neath. On  the  left  of  the  west  entrance  is  the  tomb  of 
Jean  le  Chenet,  grand-ecuyer  to  Charles  V.,  and  his  wife, 
brought  from  the  chapel  of  St.  Antoine,  which  they 
founded  at  the  Celestine  Convent ;  behind  it  is  a  Fietd  in 
colored  relief,  on  either  side  of  which  are  the  founders  pre- 
sented by  their  patron  saints.  The  low  wide  font  is  of 
the  XIII.  c. 

On  the  hill  above  Limay  is  Le  Chateau  des  Celestins, 
on  the  site  of  a  convent  founded  in  1376  by  Charles  V. ; 
and  a  little  below  the  white  walls  of  its  vineyard  terraces  a 
path  leads  to  the  Hennitage  of  St.  Saiiveur  {4  k.  from  Man- 
tes). The  way  winds  along  the  edge  of  the  limestone  hills, 
which,  ugly  in  form,  especially  lend  themselves  to  vine- 
yards, and  the  views  of  the  windings  of  the  Seine  are 
beautiful.  A  stone  cross  stands  at  a  point  where  there  is 
an  exquisite  view  of  Mantes — the  noble  towers  of  Notre 
Dame  rising  above  rich  woods  and  a  graceful  bend  of  the 
river,  and  the  wavy  hills,  in  soft  succession  of  pink  and 
blue  distances,  folding  behind  them.  The  present  hermit 
is  a  woman  with  a  number  of  children,  but  the  place  is 
very  quaint  and  picturesque — a  little  establishment  en- 
closed by  walls,  and  a  church  of  considerable  size  caverned 
out  of  the  rock,  and  containing  a  curious  old  St.  Sepulchre 
and  a  number  of  other  figures  full  of  character,  brought 
from  the  Celestins  ;  also  the  effigy  of  Thomas  le  Tourneur, 
secretary  of  Charles  V.,  and  canon  of  Mantes,  who  died  in 
that  convent. 

Those  who  wish  for  a  longer  walk  mav  cross  the  Seine 
by  a  ferry  to  the  church  of  Gassicourt  (3  /'.  from  Mantes), 


HERMITAGE   OF  ST.    SAW  EUR 


155 


partly  of  the  XL  c.  and  XIII.  c,  which  belonged  formerly 
to  a  Cluniac  priory,  and  of  which  Bossuet  always  held  the 
living.  The  portal  is  curious.  The  choir  windows  have 
remains  of  stained  glass  given  by  Blanche  of  Castile.  A 
curious  sculpture  represents  Jesus  offering  to  the  Queen, 
as  the  Virgin,  the  portrait  of  St.  Louis  as  a  child.  There 
are  considerable  remains  of  mural  paintings,  and,  in  the 
Chapelle  St.  Eloi,  a  sculptured  lavabo. 

A  road  runs  north-west  from  Mantes,  evading  a  wide 
bend  of  the  river,   by  the    Chateau  de  Mcs?iil  to  (12  k.) 


HERMITAGE    OF   ST.    SAUVEUR. 


Veiheuil,  which  has  an  important  collegiate  church,  partly 
gothic  and  partly  renaissance,  to  the  ornamentation  of 
which  many  kings  and  queens  of  France  have  contributed. 
The  porch  bears  the  monograms  of  Fran9ois  I.  and  Henri 
11.  The  south  and  west  doors  are  sculptured  with  scenes 
from  Scripture  history.  The  west  portal,  surmounted  by  a 
triple  gallery,  has  statues  of  royal  benefactors ;  the  central 
column  bears  a  figure  of  Charity.  The  unfinished  tower  is 
of  1350.  In  the  interior  are  considerable  remains  of 
mural  paintings.     The  XII.  c.  choir  has  good  stall-work. 


156  J^A  YS  NEAR   PARIS 

At  the  end  of  the  Cour  dc  f  Eglise  is  a  Httle  crypt,  a  relic 
of  the  primitive  church  of  Vetheuil. 

At  19  ^.  from  Mantes  (2I  k.  from  the  station  of  Gasny 
on  the  line  from  Vernon  to  Gisors),  is  the  famous  castle 
of  La  Roche-Giiyon^  founded  by  Guy  de  Guyon  in  998 
(though  the  existing  buildings  are  of  the  XIII.  c),  and 
taken  by  the  English  in  14 18,  after  a  gallant  defence  by 
Perette  la  Riviere,  widow  of  Guy  VI.  de  la  Roche  Guyon, 
who  fell  at  Agincourt.  Old  ballads  tell  the  story  of  a  lord 
of  the  castle  murdered  in  1097  by  his  father-in-law,  together 
with  his  wife,  who  vainly  endeavored  to  protect  him.  The 
immense  substructions  are  hewn  out  of  the  rock ;  the 
principal  remaining  building  is  the  donjon.  The  later 
Chateau  of  the  Due  de  la  Roche-Guyon,  at  the  foot  of  the 
rock,  has  some  traces  of  the  XIII.  c,  and  an  entrance 
gate  of  the  XV.  c.  The  Salle  des  Gardes,  inscribed  with  the 
family  mottoes,  Cest  mon  plaisir :  In  Deo  confido,  is  filled 
with  armor.  The  Chambre  de  Hetiri  IV.  contains  the 
king^s  bed  and  bureau.  The  XV.  c.  Church  contains  the 
tomb  of  Francois  de  Silly,  Due  de  la  Roche-Guyon,  1627, 
with  his  kneeling  statue.  A  number  of  members  of  the 
families  of  La  Rochefoucauld,  De  Rohan,  and  De  Mont- 
morency, repose  in  the  vaults.  A  Fountain,  between  the 
church  and  the  chateau,  was  erected  by  Due  Alexandre  de 
la  Rochefoucauld  in  17 17. 

The  first  station  west  of  Mantes  is  (6  ^.)  Rosny,  with 
the  XVI.  c.  Chateau,  built  by  the  famous  Sully  (Maxi- 
milien  de  Be'thune),  to  replace  an  earlier  chateau  in  which 
he  was  born,  December  13,  1550.  It  was  left  unfinished 
in  1610,  as  he  had  no  longer  spirit  to  continue  the  work 
after  the  murder  of  his  beloved  master,  Henri  IV.  The 
Duchesse  de  Berri,  daughter-in-law  of  Charles  X.,  in- 
habited it  as  a  summer  residence ;  and  a  funeral  monu- 


COLO  MB  ES  i^^ 

ment  remains  behind  the  altar  of  the  church,  which  once 
supported  the  heart  of  the  murdered  Due  de  Berri.  The 
chateau  of  Rosny  now  belongs  to  Lebaudy,  the  sugar- 
refiner  ! 

To  the  south  of  Mantes  is  Rosay,  where  the  pict- 
uresque brick  chateau  of  the  Comtesse  de  Jobal  dates 
from  Henri  HI.,  and,  between  Rosay  and  Septeuil,  the 
little  village  of  St.  Corentin,  which  possessed  an  abbey 
where  Agnes  de  Me'ranie,  wife  of  Philippe  Auguste,  was 
buried,  with  the  heart  and  entrails  of  Blanche  of  Castile. 


Argenteuil  is  reached  in  twenty  minutes  from  the  Gare 
St.  Laza?-e,  passing — 

6  k.  Colombes. — In  this  village,  which  belonged  to  the 
abbey  of  St.  Denis,  was  the  convent  of  the  Visitation  de 
Chaillot,  founded  by  Henrietta  Maria,  widow  of  Charles  I. 
of  England — "la  reine  malheureuse."  It  was  at  Chaillot 
that  Mme  de  Motteville,  lady-in-waiting  to  Anne  of 
Austria,  wrote  the  description  of  the  English  Revolution 
in  her  Manoires  from  the  lips  of  the  queen ;  and  here 
her  wise  sister,  known  in  the  court  as  Socratine,  took 
the  veil.  After  the  death  of  Henrietta  Maria  (August  31, 
1669,  aged  sixty,  at  a  chateau  which  she  possessed  at 
Colombes  ^),  her  heart  was  given  to  Chaillot.  Her  body 
also  lay  in  state  in  the  convent  before  its  removal  to 
St.  Denis  :  and  here,  forty  days  after  her  death,  a  magnifi- 
cent commemoration  service  was  performed  in  the  presence 
of  the  Duke  and  Duchess  of  Orleans.  Bossuet  then  pro- 
nounced a  discourse,  in  which  he  reviewed  the  varied 
historic   episodes  which    had    attended  the    life    of  "  the 

*  The  Rue  de  la  Reine-Henriette  commemorates  the  residence  of  the  queen 
at  Colombes. 


1^8  I>A  YS  NEAR  PARIS 

queen  incomparable,  our  great  Henrietta,"  whose  "  griefs 
had  made  her  learned  in  the  science  of  salvation  and  the 
efficacy  of  the  cross,  whilst  all  Christendom  united  in 
sympathy  for  her  unexampled  sorrows — Sa  propre  patrie 
lui  fut  un  triste  lieu  d'exil." 

Queen  Mary  Beatrice  came  to  Chaillot  from  St.  Ger- 
main to  spend  the  time  of  James  II. 's  absence  in  Ireland, 
and  made  a  great  friendship  with  three  of  the  nuns 
in  the  convent,  her  "three  Angeliques."  She  frequently 
visited  Chaillot  afterwards,  and  kept  up  a  constant  corre- 
spondence with  its  inmates.  Hither  she  retired  imme- 
diately after  the  death  of  James  II.,  and  one  of  the  nuns 
records  ^  how,  in  her  weeds,  covered  by  a  long  black  veil, 
and  preceded  by  the  nuns  singing  the  "  De  Profundis," 
she  came  to  the  chapel  to  visit  the  heart  of  her  husband. 
"  She  bowed  her  head,  clasped  her  hands  together,  knelt, 
and  kissed  the  urn  through  the  black  crape  which  covered 
it,  then,  after  a  silent  prayer,  rose,  and  having  asperged  it 
with  holy  water,  without  sigh  or  tear,  turned  about  silently, 
with  great  apparent  firmness,  but,  before  she  had  made 
four  steps,  fell  in  such  a  faint  as  caused  fears  for  her  life.'* 

In  her  latter  years  Mar}'  Beatrice  lived  much  in  the 
seclusion  of  Chaillot,  taking  refuge  here  when  she  had 
given  all  she  possessed  to  the  importunity  of  the  English 
exiles ;  and  she  bequeathed  her  heart  to  rest  for  ever  in 
the  convent,  and  her  body  till  the  moment  she  always 
hoped  for  should  arrive,  when  her  remains  should  be 
transported  to  Westminster  with  those  of  the  king  her  hus- 
band and  their  daughter  Louisa. 

It  was  to  Chaillot  that  Mile  de  la  Valliere  fled,  when 
she  first  escaped  from  the  Court  and  from   the  indiffer- 

1  Chaillot  MS. 


CHAILLOT  1^9 

ence  of  Louis  XIV.,  captivated  by  Mme  de  Montespan ; 
and  hither  Colbert  came  on  the  part  of  his  master,  to 
bring  her  back  once  more  to  the  Court,  whence  she  soon 
fled  a  second  time,  and  for  ever. 

In  the  church  of  the  Minims  of  Chaillot  was  the  tomb 
of  Fran^oise  de  Veyni  d'Arbouse,  wife  of  Antoine  Duprat, 
afterwards  Cardinal  and  Chancellor  of  France  under  Fran- 
cois I.,  and  that  of  the  brave  Marechal  Comte  de  Rantzau, 
inscribed : — 

"  Du  corps  du  grand  Rantzau  tu  n'as  que  des  parts, 
L'autre  moitie  resta  dans  les  plaines  de  Mars  : 
II  dispersa  partout  ses  membres  et  sa  gloire. 
Tout  abattu  qu'il  fut,  il  demeura  vainqueur  : 
Son  sang  fut  en  cent  lieux  le  prix  de  sa  victoire, 
Et  Mars  ne  lui  laissa  rien  d'entier  que  le  coeur." 

At  Bezons^  a  little  west  of  Colombes,  near  the  Seine, 
are  some  remains  of  the  chateau  inhabited  by  the  Mare'- 
chal  de  Bezons  in  the  beginning  of  the  XVIII.  c. 

<^k.  Argenteuil,  famous  for  its  wine  and  for  its  Benedict- 
ine monastery,  of  whicli  the  famous  He'loise  was  prioress 
in  the  beginning  of  the  XII.  c,  before  she  went  to  the 
Paraclete.  Its  great  relic  was  the  seamless  tunic  of  our 
Saviour,  supposed  to  have  been  woven  by  the  Virgin. 
Matthew  of  Westminster  says  that  it  grew  with  the  growth 
of  Jesus — Mater  ejus  fecerat  ei,  et  crevit  ipso  crescente. 
Gregory  of  Tours  says  that,  after  the  Crucifixion,  the 
"  Holy  Tunic  "  was  preserved  in  a  hidden  cellar  in  the 
town  of  Galatia,  fifty  leagues  from  Constantinople.  This 
town  was  destroyed  by  the  Persians  in  590,  but  the  tunic 
was  saved,  and  carried  to  Jaffa,  and  thence,  in  595,  to 
Jerusalem.  In  614  it  is  believed  to  have  been  carried 
off  by  Chosroes  II.  of  Persia,  when  he  sacked  the  holy 
city,  but  his  son  gave  it  up  in  628  to  Heraclius,  who  car- 


l6o  DA  YS  NEAR  PARIS 

ri^d  it  to  Constantinople.  Here  it  remained  till  the  Em- 
press Irene  gave  it  to  Charlemagne,  who  bestowed  it  upon 
his  daughter  Theodrada,  abbess  of  Argenteuil.  In  the 
IX.  c. ,  when  the  convent  was  sacked  by  the  barbarians  of 
the  north,  the  tunic  w^as  lost,  but  its  existence  is  supposed 
to  have  been  revealed  by  an  angel  to  a  monk  in  1156,  and 
henceforth  it  worked  many  miracles.  The  Huguenots, 
taking  Argenteuil  in  1567,  made  "a  plaything  "of  the 
tunic;  but  Henri  III.,  Louis  XIII.,  Marie  de  Medicis 
and  Anne  of  Austria  made  pilgrimages  to  it,  and  Mile  de 
Guise  gave  it  a  sumptuous  shrine.  At  the  Revolution  the 
church  was  pillaged,  and  the  shrine  carried  off,  but  the 
tunic  was  hidden  in  the  presbytery  garden,  where  it  was 
found  by  the  Bishop  of  Versailles  in  1804,  and  restored  to 
the  church.  A  morsel  was  given,  at  his  urgent  request,  to 
Pius  IX.  and  another  to  the  Jesuit  convent  at  Fribourg. 
The  Cathedral  of  Treves  possesses  the  robe  of  Christ,  as 
distinguished  from  the  tunic. 

At  the  end  of  the  long  winding  street  of  Argenteuil,  is 
the  very  handsome  modern  romanesque  church.  The 
shrine  is  in  the  right  transept,  and,  near  it,  a  picture  by 
Bonterwek,  representing  the  reception  of  the  relic  by  Char- 
lemagne's daughter.  The  church  bells  still  ring  at  i  p.m., 
the  hour  at  which  the  seamless  tunic  arrived  in  the  VIII.  c. 


VI. 

ST.  DENIS,  ENGHIEN,  AND  MONTMORENCY. 

ST.  DENIS  may  be  reached  by  rail  from  the  Chemin  do  Fer 
du  Nord  in  fifteen  minutes,  but  the  station  of  St.  Denis  is 
a  long  wa}'  from  the  cathedral.  A  much  better  plan  is  to  take 
rhe  tramway  (every  half  hour),  from  the  Rue  Taitbout  or  Boule- 
^^ard  Haussmann  (an  omnibus  runs  in  connection  from  the 
boulevard  St.  Denis),  which  sets  visitors  down  close  to  the 
cathedral. 

Hotel  de  France  ;  du  Grand  Ccrf. 

The  way  to  St.  Denis  lies  through  the  manufacturing 
suburb  of  Paris,  and  is  very  ugly.  The  crosses  (Monjoies, 
Mons  gaudii)  which  once  bordered  the  way,  have  long 
perished. 

"  In  the  way  were  faire  crosses  of  stone  carv'd  with  fieurs  de 
lys  at  every  furlong's  end,  where  they  affirme  St.  Denys  rested 
and  layd  down  his  head  after  martyrdom." — Jolni  Evelyn. 

On  the  site  of  an  oratory  in  which  the  pious  Catulla 
placed  the  relics  of  St.  Denis,  with  his  companions  Rus- 
ticus  and  Eleutherius,  after  their  death  at  the  Mons  mar- 
tyrum  (Montmartre),  and  in  the  village  which  in  the 
XII.  c.  was  called  from  her  Vicus  Catholiacensis,  rose  the 
famous  abbey  of  St.  Denis.  In  the  V.  c.  St.  Genevieve 
rebuilt  the  chapel  of  St.  Denis,  and  her  work  was  four 
times  reconstructed  before  the  XIII.  c,  to  which  the 
present  building  is  due,  though,  in  the  crypt,  some  arches 
remain  from  the  church  of  Dagobert,  630.     The  Abbot 


1 62  DA  YS  NEAR  PARIS 

Suger,  who  governed  France  during  the  crusade  of  Louis 
VII.,  built  greater  part  of  the  church  which  we  now  see, 
the  church  in  which  Jeanne  Dare  offered  her  sw^ord  and 
armor  upon  the  altar,  and  in  which  Henri  IV.  abjured 
Protestantism.  The  w'estern  facade,  of  1140,,  has  three 
romanesque  portals,  richly  decorated  with  sculpture^  that 
in  the  centre  with  statues  of  the  wise  and  foolish  virgins. 
Only  one  of  the  two  side  towers  remains  :  that  on  the 
north,  pulled  down  in  1846,  had  a  tall  spire.  The  remain- 
ing tower  contains  the  great  bell  of  Charles  V.,  recast  in 
1758,  and  called  Louise,  in  honor  of  Louis  XV.  The 
stately  aspect  of  the  interior  is  greatly  enhanced  by  the 
four  staircases  leading  to  the  chevet.  The  choir,  sur- 
rounded by  radiating  chapels,  was  consecrated  in  1144. 
The  stained-glass  windows  are  mostly  of  the  reign  of 
Louis  Philippe.  Only  one  is  ancient,  that  in  the  Chapel 
of  the  Virgin,  with  the  genealogy  of  Christ. 

In  1790,  the  decree  which  suppressed  the  religious 
orders  put  an  end  to  the  existence  of  the  abbey  of  St. 
Denis,  which  had  lasted  more  than  eleven  centuries  and  a 
half.  The  monks  celebrated  mass  for  the  last  time  on 
September  14,  1792,  after  which  their  church  became  that 
of  the  parish.  But  in  1793  the  church  also  was  closed, 
and  was  only  reopened  in  the  following  year,  as  a  Tem- 
ple of  Reason.  In  1800,  when  Chateaubriand  saw  St. 
Denis,  the  church  was  unroofed,  the  window^s  broken,  and 
the  tombs  were  gone. 

"  The  people,  in  savage  fury  over  the  tombs,  seemed  to  ex- 
hume its  own  history  and  cast  it  to  the  winds.  The  axe  broke 
the  bronze  gates  given  by  Charlemagne  to  the  basilica  of  St. 
Denis.  Railings,  roof-pieces,  statues,  all  crumbled  into  frag- 
ments beneath  the  hammer.  Stones  were  torn  up,  tombs  violated, 
coffins  smashed  in.  A  mocking  curiosity  examined  under  the 
bandages  and  shrouds  the  enbalmed  bodies,  the  consumed  flesh, 


CATHEDRAL    OF   ST.   DENIS 


163 


'the  calcined  bones,  the  empty  skulls  of  kings,  queens,  princes, 
ministers,  or  bishops,  whose  names  had  echoed  through  the  past 
history  of  France.  Pepin,  the  founder  of  the  Carlovingian 
dynasty,  and  the  father  of  Charlemagne,  was  only  a  pinch  of  grey 
dust,  that  the  wind  carried  off.  The  mutilated  heads  of  the 
Turennes,  the  Duguesclins,  Louis  XII.,  Francis  I.  rolled  on  the 
parvis.  Every  step  was  on  piles  of  sceptres,  crowns,  pastoral 
staves,  historic  or  religious  attributes.  An  immense  ditch,  the 
sides  of  which  were  covered  with  quicklime,  to  destroy  the 
bodies,  was  dug  in  one  of  the  outer  cemeteries,  called  the  Ceme- 
tery of  the  Valois.  Perfumes  were  burned  in  the  vaults  to  purify 
the  air.  After  every  blow  of  the  axe,  the  shouts  of  the  diggers 
were  heard  as  they  discovered  the  remains  of  a  king,  and  played 
with  his  bones. 

"  Under  the  choir  were  buried  the  princes  and  princesses  of 
the  first  race  and  some  of  the  third — Hugh  Capet,  Philippe  le 
Hardi,  Philippe  le  Bel.  They  were  stripped  of  their  silk  bands 
and  thrown  into  a  bed  of  lime. 

"  Henri  IV.,  skilfully  enbalmed  by  Italians,  preserved  his 
historic  countenance.  His  chest,  when  exposed,  still  displayed 
the  two  wounds  by  which  his  life  had  fled.  His  beard,  scented 
and  spread  out  in  fan-shape,  as  in  his  pictures,  evidenced  the 
care  which  this  voluptuous  king  took  about  his  appearance.  His 
memory,  dear  to  the  people,  protected  him  for  a  moment  from 
profanation.  The  crowd  defiled  in  silence  for  two  days  before 
this  still  popular  corpse.  Placed  in  the  choir  at  the  foot  of  the 
altar,  he  received  in  death  the  respectful  homage  of  the  muti- 
lators of  royalty.  Javogues,  a  representative  of  the  people,  was 
indignant  at  such  posthumous  superstition.  He  endeavored  to 
demonstrate  in  a  few  words  to  the  people,  that  this  king,  brave 
and  amorous,  had  been  the  seducer  rather  than  the  saver  of  his 
people.  '  He  deceived,'  said  Javogues,  '  God,  his  mistresses,  and 
his  people  ;  let  him  not  deceive  posterity  and  your  justice.'  The 
corpse  of  Henri  IV.  was  flung  into  the  common  grave. 

"His  son  and  grandson,  Louis  XIII.  and  Louis  XIV.,  fol- 
lowed him.  Louis  XIII.  was  only  a  mummy,  Louis  XIV.  a  black, 
amorphous  mass  of  spices.  The  man  was  lost  after  death  in  per- 
fumes, as  during  life  in  pride.  The  sepulchre  of  the  Bourbons 
gave  up  its  dead  ;  queens,  dauphines,  princesses  were  carried  in 
armfuls,  by  laborers,  and  thrown,  with  their  entrails,  into  the  pit. 
Louis  XV.  came  last  from  the  tomb.  The  infection  of  his  rei^a 
seemed  to  rise  from  his  sepulchre.     A  mass  of  powder  had  to  be 


164  I?AVS  NEAR   PARIS 

burned  to  dissipate  the  mephitic  odor  of  the  corpse  of  this  prince; 
whose  scandals  had  degraded  royalty. 

"  In  the  tomb  of  the  Charleses,  there  was  found  by  the  side  of 
Charles  V.  a  hand  of  justice  and  a  gold  crown,  and  the  spindle 
and  nuptial  ring  to  the  coffin  of  Jeanne  de  Bourbon,  his  wife. 

"The  tomb  of  the  Valois  was  empty.  The  just  hatred  of  the 
people  sought  Louis  XI,  in  vain.  This  king  had  himself  buried 
in  one  of  the  sanctuaries  of  the  Virgin,  Avhom  he  so  often  invoked 
even  to  aid  him  in  his  crimes. 

"  The  body  of  Turenne,  injured  by  the  cannon-ball,  was 
venerated  by  the  people.  It  was  saved  from  re-interment,  and 
preserved  for  nine  years  in  the  garrets  of  the  Museum  of  Natural 
History  at  the  Jardin  des  Plantes,  among  the  stuffed  animals. 
The  soldiers'  tomb  of  the  Invalides  was  granted  to  this  hero  by 
the  hand  of  a  soldier  like  him.  Duguesclin,  Suger,  Vendome, 
heroes,  abbes,  ministers  of  the  monarchy,  were  hurled,  pell-mell, 
into  the  earth  which  confounded  recollections  of  glory  with  rec- 
ollections of  slavery. 

"  Dagobert  I.  and  his  wife  Nantilde  reposed  in  the  same  sep- 
ulchre for  twelve  centuries.  There  was  no  head  to  the  skeleton 
of  Nantilde  as  to  the  skeletons  of  many  queens.  King  John 
closed  this  mournful  procession  of  the  dead.  The  tombs  were 
emptied.  One  corpse,  it  was  seen,  was  wanting,  that  of  a  young 
princess,  daughter  of  Louis  XV.,  who  had  fled  into  a  convent 
from  the  scandals  of  the  throne,  and  died  in  the  robe  of  a  Carme- 
lite. The  vengeance  of  the  Revolution  sought  for  the  virgin's 
corpse  even  in  the  tomb  of  the  cloister  where  she  had  fled  all 
grandeur.  The  coffin  was  brought  to  St.  Denis  to  undergo  the 
punishment  of  exhumation  and  the  garbage-pit.  No  corpse  was 
spared.  Nothing  royal  was  deemed  innocent.  This  brutal  in- 
stinct revealed  in  the  Revolution  the  desire  to  repudiate  the  long 
past  of  France.  It  would  have  liked  to  tear  out  all  the  pages  of 
its  history,  to  date  all  from  the  republic." — Lamartijie,  "'Hist,  des 
Girondins.'' 

Englishmen  are  interested  in  the  fact  that  the  first 
coffin  disinterred  at  St.  Denis  was  that  of  Henrietta  Ma- 
ria, widow  of  Charles  I.  of  England.  The  next  was  that 
of  her  daughter  Henrietta,  first  wife  of  the  Due  d'Orleans, 
brother  of  Louis  XIV. 

None  of  the  monuments  which  existed  in  the  abbey- 


MONUMENTS   OF  ST.  DENIS  165 

church  before  the  Revolution  were  older  than  the  time  of 
St.  Louis.  It  was  that  king  who  placed  tombs  upon  the 
resting-places  of  his  predecessors  from  the  time  of  Dago- 
bert  to  that  of  Louis  VL,  his  great-great-grandfather.  Very 
few  princes  and  princesses  of  the  first  two  dynasties  were 
buried  at  St.  Denis,  but  the  house  of  Capet  were  almost 
all  laid  there.  Of  its  thirty-two  monarchs,  only  three  de- 
sired to  be  buried  elsewhere — Philippe  I.  at  St.  Benoit- 
sur-Loire ;  Louis  VIL  at  the  abbey  of  Barbeau  ;  Louis  XL 
at  Notre  Dame  de  Clery.  The  coffins  up  to  the  XIV.  c. 
were  in  stone,  after  that  in  lead.  The  effigies  placed  here 
by  St.  Louis  cannot  be  considered  as  portraits.  The  first 
statue  which  appears  to  aim  at  portraiture  is  that  of  Phi- 
lippe le  Hardi.  After  the  time  of  Henri  II.  no  royal  monu- 
ments were  erected,  and  two  long  lines  of  coffins  of  fifty- 
four  members  of  the  House  of  Bourbon  were  placed  on 
iron  trestles  in  the  sanctuary  of  the  crypt,  without  tombs. 
The  Dauphin,  eldest  son  of  Louis  XVL  (June,  1789), 
filled  the  last  place  which  remained  unoccupied  ;  a  new 
burial-place  was  in  contemplation,  when  the  Revolution 
cleared  out  all  the  vaults.  Up  to  that  time,  besides  the 
abbots  of  St.  Denis,  only  twelve  illustrious  persons  had 
received  the  honor  of  burial  amongst  the  kings — Pierre  de 
Nemours  and  Alphonse  de  Brienne,  who  died  before 
Carthage  in  1270,  and  whose  remains  were  brought  back 
with  those  of  St.  Louis ;  Du  Guesclin,  the  liberator  of 
France,  and  his  brother  in  arms,  Louis  de  Sancerre  ;  Bureau 
de  la  Riviere,  the  faithful  councillor  of  Charles  V.  and 
Charles  VI.  ;  Arnaud  de  Guilhem,  killed  at  the  battle  of 
Bulgue'ville,  143 1  ;  Se'dile  de  St.  Croix,  wife  of  Jean  Pas- 
tourel,  councillor  of  Charles  V.  ;  Guillaume  de  Chastel, 
killed  at  the  battle  of  Pontoise,  1441  ;  Louis  de  Pontoise. 
killed  at  the  siege  of  Crotoy,  1475  ;  ^^^^  ^^^  ^^  Chatilloii, 


1 66  ^A  YS  NEAR   PARIS 

killed  at  the  taking  of  Ciiarenton,  1649  ;  and  the  Marquis 
de  St.  Maigrin,  killed  fighting  in  the  Faubourg  St.  Antoine, 
1652  ;  lastly,  Turenne,  whose  body  was  removed  to  the  In- 
valides  bv  order  of  the  first  consul. 

Between  August  6  and  8,  1793,  fifty  monuments  were 
thrown  down  at  St.  Denis,  but  by  the  indefatigable  energy 
of  a  single  private  cititzen,  Alexandre  Lenoir,  the  greater 
part  of  the  statues  and  several  of  the  tombs  in  stone  and 
marble  were  preserved,  and  removed  to  a  Muse'e  des 
Monuments  Francais  at  Paris.  The  monuments  in  metal 
were  almost  all  melted  down,  though  they  included  the 
precious  recumbent  statue  of  Charles  le  Chauve,  the 
tomb  of  Marguerite  de  Provence,  the  mausoleum  of 
Charles  VIII.,  and  the  effigy  of  the  Sire  de  Barbazan, 
signed  by  Jean  Morant,  founder  at  Paris.  At  the  same 
time  the  royal  coffins  were  rifled  of  silver-gilt  crowns, 
sceptres,  hands  of  justice,  rings,  brooches,  the  distaffs  of 
two  queens,  and  many  precious  stuffs. 

A  royal  ordinance  of  December,  18 16,  ordered  the 
closing  of  the  historical  museum,  and  the  restoration  to 
the  churches  of  such  fragments  of  tombs  as  were  pre- 
served. A  number  of  monuments  from  the  abbevs  of  St. 
Genevieve,  St.  Germain  des  Pre's,  and  Royaumont ;  from 
the  convents  of  the  Cordeliers,  Jacobins,  Celestins,  and 
other  religious  orders,  were  then  sent  to  St.  Denis  with 
those  which  had  originally  belonged  to  the  church.  Only 
such  tombs  as  were  too  large  to  be  placed  in  the  crypt 
were  left  above  ground ;  the  rest  were  arranged  in  the 
vaults,  where  they  continued  till  the  restoration  of  the 
monuments  of  St.  Denis  to  their  original  site  was  begun 
by  VioUet-le-Duc,  and  the  effigies  brought  from  other  sites 
placed  as  near  as  possible  to  the  tombs  of  those  with 
whom  they  were  connected. 


MONUMENTS   OF  ST.    DENIS  167 

According  to  present  arrangements,  the  monumental 
treasures  of  St.  Denis  may  be  glanced  at,  but  they  cannot 
be  seen.  Every  half-hour  (except  i  p.m.)  on  week  days, 
and  between  3.30  and  5.30  on  Sundays,  parties  of  ten  are 
formed  and  hurried  full-gallop  round  the  church  under  the 
guardianship  of  a  jabbering  custode,  who  is  unaule  to 
answer  any  question  out  of  the  regular  routine,  allows  no 
one  to  linger  except  over  the  XIX.  c.  monuments,  which 
he  greatly  admires,  and  is  chiefly  occupied  by  the  "Gentle- 
men and  ladies,  please  remember  your  guide,"  at  the  end 
of  the  survey.  Wooden  barriers  prevent  any  one  from 
approaching  the  tombs,  so  little  is  gained  beyond  a  con- 
sciousness that  they  are  there.  As  the  tombs  are  always 
shown  from  the  left,  we  follow  that  course  here. 

At  the  end  of  the  open  part  of  the  left  aisle  of  the  nave 
is  the  little  Chapelle  de  la  Trinite.  It  contains  the  tombs 
of  Charles  de  Valois,  Comte  d\4lencoji,  1346,  and  his  wife 
Marie  d^ Espag?ie,  1379,  brought  hither  from  the  great 
church  of  the  Jacobins  at  Paris.  Charles  de  Valois  fell 
in  the  battle  of  Crecy:  his  shield,  sword,  and  baldrick 
were  formerly  covered  with  enamelled  copper  like  those 
of  the  Earl  of  Cornwall  in  Westminster  Abbey. 

In  the  same  chapel  is  the  tomb  of  Leoji  de  Liisigjian, 
King  of  Armenia,  1393,  who  died  at  Paris  and  was  buried 
with  great  magnificence  by  Charles  VI.  in  the  church  of 
the  Celestins,  whence  his  monument  was  brought  here. 
His  statue  lies  on  the  spot  where  tradition  says  that  Christ 
entered  the  church  to  consecrate  it  in  person. 

Passing  the  barrier,  the  Chapelle  de  St.  Hippolyte  on  the 
left — open  towards  the  aisle— is  devoted  to  the  family  of 
Valois  or  of  St.  Louis.  The  first  group  of  monuments  in 
point  of  date  is  that  of  Philippe,  brother  of  St.  Louis  ;  Louis, 
eldest  so?i  of  St.  Louis,  1260  ;  Louis  and  Philippe,  sons  of 


i68  J^A  YS  NEAR   PARIS 

Pierre,  Comie  d^Alejifon,  and grandso?is  of  St.  Louis,  XIII.  c. 
All  these  were  originally  buried  in  the  abbey  which  St. 
Louis  founded  at  Royaumont,  and  were  brought  hither  on 
its  suppression  in  1791.  The  figures  of  the  brother  and 
son  of  St.  Louis  rest  on  tombs  surrounded  by  niches  full 
of  figures.  Those  on  the  tomb  of  Prince  Louis  represent 
the  funeral  procession  which  accompanied  his  remains  to 
Royaumont.  Henry  III.  of  England,  who  was  at  that 
time  at  Paris,  was  amongst  those  who  carried  the  coffin, 
and  is  thus  represented  in  a  relief  at  the  foot  of  the  tomb. 
The  two  Alengon  children  died  in  infancy,  and  lie  on  the 
same  tomb,  divided  into  two  niches  ;  but  this  tomb  is  a 
copy,  the  original,  with  that  of  a  child  of  Philippe,  Comte 
d'Artois,  1291,  also  from  Royaumont,  is  in  the  "magasin" 
of  the  church  !  Charles  d^AnJou,  Ki?ig  of  Sicily  and  Jeru- 
salem, 1285,  brother  of  St.  Louis,  is  buried  at  Naples,  with 
a  magnificent  monument,  but  his  heart  was  brought  to  the 
church  of  the  Jacobins  at  Paris,  where  his  great-grand- 
daughter. Queen  Clemence  de  Hongrie,  erected  (1326)  the 
tomb  which  we  now  see  here ;  his  right  hand  holds  a 
sword,  and  his  left  a  heart.  Blanche,  third  daughter  of  St. 
Louis,  1320,  married  Ferdinand,  eldest  son  of  Alfonso  X. 
of  Castile,  but  returned  to  France  after  his  death,  and 
died  in  the  convent  of  the  Cordeliers  in  the  Faubourg  St. 
Marcel,  which  she  had  founded,  whence  her  tomb  was 
brought  hither.  She  is  represented  in  extreme  youth. 
Louis,  Comte  d'Evreux,  13 19,  son  of  Philippe  le  Hardi, 
and  his  wife,  Marguerite  d^Artois,  13 11,  were  buried  in  the 
church  of  the  Jacobins  at  Paris,  whence  their  monument 
was  brought  here.  The  figure  of  the  Countess  is  one  of 
the  best  mediaeval  statues  known — both  as  to  expression 
and  costume  :  at  her  feet  two  little  dogs  play  with  some 
oak-leaves.      Charles,  Comte  de  Valois,  1325,  third   son  of 


THE   ROYAL    TOMBS  169 

Philippe  le  Hardi,  and  chief  of  the  royal  branch  of  Valois, 
was  also  brought  hither  from  the  church  of  the  Jacobins, 
his  second  wife,  Catherine  de  Courfenay,  1307  (daughter 
of  Philippe,  titular  Emperor  of  Constantinople,  from  whom 
she  inherited  the  title  of  empress),  was  brought  to  St. 
Denis  from  the  monastery  of  Maubuisson  :  her  statue  has 
the  peculiarity  of  being  in  black  marble.  Cleme?tce  de 
Ho?igrie,  1328,  second  wife  of  Louis  X.,  and  daughter  of 
Charles  Martel  (d'Anjou),  King  of  Hungary,  was  brought 
hither  from  the  Jacobins.  The  efhgies  of  Blanche d^Evj^eux^ 
second  queen  of  Philippe  VI.,  1398,  and  their  daughter 
yeanne  de  France,  137 1?  rest  on  the  spot  which  their  tomb 
formerly  occupied  in  the  centre  of  the  Chapelle  St.  Hippo- 
lyte,  but  the  original  black-marble  tomb  surrounded  by 
twenty-four  statuettes  of  the  ancestors  of  Blanche  d'Evreux 
is  destroyed.  The  queen  had  formerly  a  metal  crown. 
Jeanne  de  France  died  at  Beziers  on  her  way  to  marry 
Jean  d'Aragon,  Due  de  Gironne,  but  was  brought  for 
burial  to  St.  Denis.  The  statue  erect  against  a  pillar  is 
that  of  a  Prioress  of  Poissy,  Marie  de  Bourbon,  1402, 
daughter  of  Pierre  I.,  Due  de  Bourbon,  and  sister-in-law  of 
King  Charles  V,  She  received  the  veil  in  her  fourth 
year.  Her  effigy  remained  till  the  last  century  in  the  con- 
ventual church  of  St.  Louis  de  Poissy,  attached  to  a  pillar. 

On  the  right  of  the  aisle  is  the  pillar  in  honor  of  Car- 
dinal Louis  de  Bourbon,  1557  (son  ofFran9ois  de  Bourbon, 
Comte  de  Vendome,  and  Marie  de  Luxembourg),  arch- 
bishop of  Sens  and  abbot  of  St.  Denis.  He  is  buried  at 
Laon,  which  was  one  of  his  five  bishoprics,  but  his  heart 
was  brought  hither.  The  pillar  formerly  bore  a  kneeling 
statue  of  the  cardinal. 

Close  to  this,  but  inside  the  choir,  is  the  red-marble 
twisted  column  in  memory  of  Henri  III.,  1589,  assassin- 


170  DAYS  NEAR   PARIS 

ated  at  St.  Cloud,  and  first  buried  at  the  abbey  of  St. 
Corneille  de  Compeigne,  whence  his  remains  were  brought 
hither  in  1610,  to  be  buried  in  the  chapel  of  the  Valois. 

Now,  on  the  right,  we  see,  restored  to  their  original 
position  between  the  choir  and  the  transept,  four  tombs 
bearing  statues — Robert  le  Picux,  1031,  and  Constance 
d'Arlcs,  1032,  daughter  of  Guillaume,  Comte  de  Provence; 
Henri  I.,  1060,  founder  of  St.  Martin  les  Champs,  and 
Louis  VI.,  1 13 7;  Philippe  k  Jeime^  eldest  son  of  Louis 
VI.,  1 131  (who  was  crowned  in  the  lifetime  of  his  father, 
1 129,  and  was  killed  by  a  fall  from  his  horse),  and  Coti- 
stance  de  Castille,  11 60,  daughter  of  Alphonso  VIII.,  who 
married  Louis  VII.  after  his  divorce  from  Eleanor  of 
Aquitaine  ;  Carloman,  771,  king  of  Austrasia,  and  brother 
of  Charlemagne,  who  died  at  twenty-one,  and  JSrmejttrude, 
869,  first  wife  of  Charles  le  Chauve.  All  this  series  be- 
longs to  the  effigies  erected  by  St.  Louis  to  the  memory  of 
his  ancestors  in  the  XIII.  c.  Near  these  are  the  tombs  of 
Louis  X.,  le  Hufin,  1316,  who  died  at  Vincennes;  the 
charming  little  effigy  oiJea:i  Z,  1316,  son  of  Louis  X.,  who 
was  born  at  the  Louvre  four  months  after  his  father's 
death,  and  only  lived  five  days ;  and  Jeaiine  de  France^ 
1349,  eldest  daughter  of  Louis  X.  and  Marguerite  de 
Bourgogne,  wife  of  Philippe  le  Bon,  king  of  Navarre. 
Further  inside  the  choir  are  tombs  copied  from  those 
originally  existing  in  the  abbey  of  Royaumont,  and  sup- 
porting effigies  brought  from  thence  oijean  Tristan  and 
Blanche,  children  of  St.  Louis,  in  enamelled  copper. 
Blanche  died  1243  ;  Jean,  who  accompanied  his  father  to 
the  Crusades,  died  before  him  on  the  coast  of  Africa  in 
1247. 

On  the  left,  on  either  side  of  the  entrance  to  the  north 
transept,  are  statues  brought  from  Notre  Dame  de  Corbeil 


THE  ROYAL    TOMBS  j^i 

— a  king  and  queen,  which  have  been  long  regarded,  but 
with  much  uncertainty,  as  representing  Clovis  and  Clotilde. 
Hard  by  is  the  splendid  tomb  of  Louis  XII.,  15 15,  and 
his  second  wife,  A?me  de  Bretagne,  15 14,  executed  at  Tours 
by  Jean  Juste.  ^  A  large  square  base  supports  an  edifice 
pierced  by  twelve  arches,  within  which  the  royal  pair  are 
represented  as  skeletons,  whilst  above  they  kneel,  as  in 
life,  with  joined  hands  before  a  prie-dieu,  in  statues  which 
are  supposed  to  be  portraits  of  the  utmost  fidelity.  Statues 
of  Fortitude,  Justice,  Prudence,  and  Temperance  are  seated 
at  the  angles ;  between  the  arches  are  statues  of  the  apos- 
tles, and  on  the  base  are  four  bas-reliefs  of  wonderful 
workmanship,  representing  the  campaigns  of  the  king  in 
Italy.  In  this  monument,  says  Liibke,  "  French  sculpture 
attained  its  classical  perfection." 

"  On  the  burying-place  of  Louis  XII.  and  Queen  Anne,  King 
Francis,  their  son-in-law  and  successor,  erected  a  sumptuous 
mausoleum  of  fine  white  marble  two  stories  high,  which  is  one  of 
the  finest,  not  to  say  the  finest,  piece  of  work  in  Europe.  There 
is  a  tomb  in  this  mausoleum  in  which  lie  the  bodies  of  the  king 
and  queen  in  leaden  coffins,  as  sound  and  whole  as  when  they 
were  placed  there.  On  that  of  the  king,  at  the  head,  there  is  a 
crown  of  gilt  copper,  formed  like  an  imperial  crown,  and  on  that 
of  his  wife  a  simple  ducal  crown.  At  the  feet  of  the  two  coffins 
are  their  epitaphs  engraved  on  plates  of  tin." — Gennain  Millet, 
XVII.  c. 

"  Faithful  to  his  promises,  the  first  observer  of  the  laws  he 
gave,  a  foe  to  intrigue  and  quibbling,  loving  to  take  counsel  of 
learned  men,  and  rejecting  that  vanity  which  is  common  to  so 
many  sovereigns,  which  believes  that  omniscience  is  united  to 
omnipotence,  Louis  was  truly  a  good  king." — Tozichard-Lafosse, 
'^  Hist,  de  Paris.'' 

The  next  great  monument,  of  Henri  II.,  1559,  and 
Catherine  de  Mtdicis,  1589,  is  the  masterpiece  of  Germain 

1  In  1531,  Francis  I.  commissioned  Cardinal  Duprat  to  pay  Jean  Juste  of 
Tours  for  the  monument  of  the  "  feu  roy  Loys  et  royne  Anne." 


1^2  BAYS  NEAR   PARIS 

Pilon.  It  formerly  occupied  the  centre  of  a  magnificent 
chapel  of  its  own,  destroyed  in  17 19,  when  it  was  trans- 
ferred to  the  north  transept.  The  royal  pair  are  again 
here  represented  twice — below,  in  the  sleep  of  death,  the 
queen  beautiful  as  at  the  time  of  the  death  of  her  husband, 
whom  she  survived  thirty  years;  above,  kneeling  in  royal 


TOMB   OF    LOUIS   XII.      ST.    DENIS. 

robes.     The  bas-reliefs  of  the  stylobate  represent  Faith, 
Hope,  Charity,  and  Good  Works. 

"The  Cavalierb  Bernini  admired  the  tomb  of  the  Valois,  he 
who  could  find  nothing  passable  in  France." — Satival,  "  An- 
tiqiiite's  dc  Paris.'' 

Near  the  tomb  of  Henri  H,  is  that  of  Guillawne  du 
Chasfel,  1441,  "panetier  du  roi,"  killed  at  the  siege  of 
Pontoise,  and  buried  here  by  Charles  VII.  on  account  of 
his  grea^  valor  and  services  to  the  state.  He  is  repre- 
sented in  complete  armor. 


THE   ROYAL    TOMBS 


173 


Beyond  this,  in  the  Chapelle  Notre  Da??ie  la  Blanche, 
are  three  tombs.  The  first  bears  the  efiigies  of  Philippe  V., 
/e  Zong,  1322  ;  his  brother,  Charles  IV.,  le  Bel,  1328,  with 
his  wife,  Jca?me  d'Evreux,  137 1,  long  his  survivor.  The 
second  is  that  of  Blanche  de  France,  1392,  daughter  of 
Charles  IV.,  and  wife  of  Philippe,  Due  d'Orleans,  fifth 
son  of  Philippe  de  Valois.  The  third  effig}^  represents 
Jean  II.,  le  Bon,  who  was  taken  prisoner  at  the  battle  of 
Poitiers,  and  died  at  the  Savoy  in  London,  1364.^  It  was 
to  this  chapel  that  Queen  Jeanne  d'Evreux  gave  the 
image  of  the  Virgin  which  is  now  at  Paris,  in  the  church 
of  St.  Germain  des  Pre's. 

On  the  right  of  the  stairs  ascending  to  the  sanctuary, 
between  them  and  the  choir,  are  the  cenotaph  monuments 
of  Clovis  I,  511,  and  his  son  Childebert  I.,  558.  The 
statue  of  Clovis,  of  XII.  c,  comes  from  a  tomb  which 
occupied  the  centre  of  a  (now  destroyed)  church  which  he 
founded  under  the  name  of  the  Saints-Apotres,  and  which 
afterwards  took  that  of  St.  Genevieve.  The  king  has  the 
long  hair  and  beard  of  the  Merovingian  race.  The  statue 
of  Childebert  I.  comes  from  his  tomb  in  the  centre  of  the 
choir  of  the  church  which  he  founded  in  honor  of  St.  Vin- 
cent, afterwards  St.  Germain  des  Pre's.- 

Ascending  the  steps,  we  find,  on  the  right,  the  tomb  of 
a  prince,  supposed  to  be  a  Comte  de  Dreux,  fi-om  the  church 
of  the  Cordeliers :  the  epitaph  was  destroyed  in  a  fire  at 
the  monastery  in  1580.  Close  by  is  an  Unknown  Frificess, 
supposed  to  represent  Blanche,  daughter  of  Charles  IV. 

On   the  left,  in  the    Chapelle  St.  Eiistache,   the   second 

1  An  authentic  portrait  of  Jean  le  Bon,  on  wood,  was,  till  recently,  pre- 
served at  the  Sainte  Chapelle. 

-  Three  sculptured  gravestones  placed  by  the  Benedictines  of  St.  Germain 
des  Pres  over  the  graves  of  Clotaire  II.,  his  wife  Bertrude.  and  Childeric  II., 
have  been  left  neglected  in  the  "  magasin  "  of  St.  Denis. 


174 


DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 


quadrangular  chapel  of  the  apse,  we  are  surprised  to  find 
Hcfiri  II.  and  Catherine  de  Medicis,  a  second  time,  lying 
on  a  bronze  bed.  The  statues  are  splendid  works  of  Ger- 
main Pilon,  and  were  only  brought  to  St.  Denis  in  1589, 
after  the  death  of  Catherine  de  Medicis.  Behind  this 
tomb  is  the  kneeling  statue  of  Marie  de  Boicrbo7i^  1538, 
which  once  existed,  with  that  of  her  sister  Catherine,  in 
the  abbey  of  Notre  Dame  de  Soissons,  of  which  the  latter 
was  abbess.  They  were  daughters  of  Charles  de  Bourbon, 
Due  de  Vendome,  and  sisters  of  Antoine  de  Bourbon, 
father  of  Henri  IV.  Marie  was  betrothed,  in  1535,  to  James 
V.  of  Scotland,  but  died  before  her  marriage  could  take 
place.  On  this  spot  formerly  stood  the  monument  of  Tu- 
renne,  now  at  the  Invalides. 

The  seven  semicircular  chapels  of  the  chevet  are  dedi- 
cated to  St.  Osmanne,  St.  Maurice,  St.  Peregrin,  the  Vir- 
gin, St.  Cucuphas,  St.  Eugene,  and  St.  Hilaire.  A  num- 
ber of  ancient  inscriptions,  and  some  sepulchral  stones  of 
abbots  of  St.  Denis,  have  been  placed  in  these  chapels. 

On  the  south  side  of  the  Sanctuary,  but  behind  the 
high-altar,  inserted  in  a  modern  altar-tomb,  is  the  curious 
mosaic  tomb  oi  Fredegonde,  wife  of  Chilperic  I.,  597.  The 
queen — who,  amongst  many  others,  murdered  her  brother- 
in-law,  stepson,  husband,  and  the  bishop  Pretextatus  at 
the  altar — is  represented  with  crown  and  sceptre,  and  royal 
mantle.     The  tomb  comes  from  St.  Germain  des  Pres. 

The  Sacristy  is  adorned  with  modern  paintings  relating 
to  the  history  of  the  abbey.  In  an  adjoining  room  is  the 
Treasury,  now  of  little  interest. 

To  the  south  of  the  high-altar,  the  side  of  the  Epistle, 
has  been  restored  the  tomb  of  Dagoberf.,  638,  long  exiled 
to  the  porch  of  the  nave.  This  king  died  in  the  Abbey  of 
St.  Denis.     His  gothic  monument  is  probably  due  to  St. 


THE   ROYAL    TOMBS 


175 


Louis.  A  modern  statue  has  been  copied  from  the  frag- 
ments broken  at  the  Revolution.  At  the  sides  of  the  arch 
are  the  statues  of  Nantilde,  wife  of  Dagobert,  and  Clovis 
II.,  their  son.  The  relief  behind  represents  the  legend 
that,  when  Dagobert  was  dying,  St.  Denis  appeared  on  the 
shore  of  Sicily  to  a  holy  hermit  named  John,  bidding  him 
arise  instantly  and  pray  for  the  departing  king.  He  had 
scarcely  obeyed  when  he  beheld,  on  the  neighboring  sea,  a 
boat  full  of  demons,  who  were  flogging  the  king  as  he  lay 
bound  at  the  bottom  of  the  vessel.  The  soul  is  repre- 
sented as  a  naked  figure  crowned.  Dagobert  was  crying 
for  help  to  his  three  favorite  saints — Denis,  Maurice,  and 
Martin.  Forthwith  the  three  saints  appeared  in  the  midst 
of  a  mighty  tempest,  and  snatched  their  servant  from  the 
hands  of  his  oppressors,  and  as  they  bore  him,  sustained 
on  a  sheet,  to  celestial  spheres,  the  hermit  heard  them  sing- 
ing the  words  of  Psalm  Ixv.,  "  Blessed  is  the  man  whom 
thou  choosest,  and  causest  to  approach  unto  thee,  that  he 
may  dwell  in  thy  courts."  Guillaume  de  Nangis,  who  nar- 
rates the  vision  of  the  hermit  John,  in  his  XIII.  c.  chroni- 
cle, adds  : 

"  Et  se  ne  me  croyez,  allez  a  Sainct  Denis  en  France,  en 
I'eglise,  et  regardez  devant  I'autel  ou  len  chante  tous  les  jours  la 
grant  messe,  la  ou  le  roy  Dagobet  gist.  La  verrez-vous  au-dessus 
de  luy  ce  que  vous  ay  dit,  pourtraict  et  de  noble  euvre  richement 
enluminee." 

A  seated  wooden  statue  of  the  Virgin,  near  the  tomb  of 
Dagobert,  comes  from  the  church  of  St.  Martin  des  Champs 
at  Paris.  Descending  the  steps  of  the  sanctuary,  we  find  on 
the  left  four  tombs  bearing  statues  to  Pepin,  768,  who  was 
buried  near  the  high-altar,  with  the  good  queen  Berthe, 
783  ;  and  to  Louis  III.,  ZZ},,  and  Carloman,  884,  sons  of 
Louis  II.    The  latter  was  killed  at  eighteen,  in  hunting,  by 


176  DAYS  NEAR   PARIS 

the  carelessness  of  one  of  his  servants,  and  died  refusing 
to  give  his  name,  that  he  might  not  be  punished  ;  his  ad- 
mirable statue  is  full  of  youthful  grace. 

Here  is  the  entrance  to  the  Crypt,  of  which  the  walled- 
in  central  part,  a  relic  of  the  XL  c,  has  served  since  the 
time  of  Henri  IV.  as  a  burial-place  for  the  princes  and  prin- 
cesses of  the  blood  royal.  It  now  contains  the  coffins  of 
Louis  XVI.,  Marie  Antoinette,  Louis  XVIII. ,  Mesdames 
Adelaide  and  Victoire  de  France  (brought  from  Trieste, 
where  they  died),  Charles  Ferdinand,  Due  de  Berry,  and 
two  of  his  children,  who  died  in  infancy,  Louis  Joseph, 
Prince  de  Conde,  and  Louis  Henri  Joseph,  Due  de  Bour- 
bon, father  of  the  Due  d'Enghien.  Here  also  are  Louis 
VI I. ,  brought  from  the  Abbey  of  Barbeau  near  Melun,  and 
Louise  de  Lorraine,  wife  of  Henri  III.,  brought  from  the 
church  of  the  Capucins  at  Paris.  In  a  walled-up  chapel  at 
the  end  of  the  crypt  aisle — Le  Caveau  de  Turenne — have 
been  placed  all  the  remains  of  earlier  kings  and  queens- 
which  were  exhumed  from  the  trench  into  which  they  were 
thrown  at  the  Revolution.  In  the  eastern  chapel  are  kneel- 
ing figures  by  Gaulle  and  Petitot  to  Louis  XVI.  and  Marie 
Antoinette.  In  another  chapel  is  a  monument  to  Louis 
XVIII.  by  Valois,  and  a  relief  to  Louis  XVII  In  a  third. 
a  relief  commemorates  Mada77ie  Louise,  daughter  of  Louis 
XV.,  who  died  a  nun  at  St.  Denis.  In  a  fourth  is  a  statue 
of  Charlemagne  by  Gois,  made  by  order  of  Napoleon  I.; 
in  a  fifth  a  monumental  statue  to  Diane  de  Fra7ice,  16 19, 
Duchesse  d'Angouleme  et  de  Montmorency,  brought  from 
the  Minimes  of  the  Place  Royale.  On  the  wall  to  the 
south  is  a  bust  of  Louis  XI.  A  passage  containing  four 
huge  statues  of  Religion,  Courage,  France,  and  Paris,  by 
Cortot  and  Dupaty,  intended  for  the  tomb  of  the  Due  de 
Berry,  murdered  1820,  leads  to  an  inner  crypt.     Here  are 


THE    CRYPT  177 

tombs  to  Henri  IV.,  Louis  XIII.  and  Anne  of  Austria ; 
Louis  XIV.,  and  Marie  Therese,  and  Louis  XV.  The  reliefs 
placed  over  the  burial-place  of  the  heart  of  Louis  XIII. 
were  brought  from  the  Grands-Jesuites  (Sts.  Paul  et  Louis) 
at  Paris,  and  are  the  work  of  Jacques  Sai-azin.  Here  also 
a  tomb  bears  medallions  to  Mesda7?ies  Adelaide  and  Vic- 
toire  and  I  heir  niece,  Madaine  Elizabeth,  the  brave  and 
saintly  sister  of  Louis  XVI.  The  Caveau  Imperial,  which 
Napoleon  III.  made  to  receive  his  dynasty,  is  quite  un- 
tenanted. 

Returning  to  the  upper  church,  we  find  on  the  left  the 
Chapelle  de  St.  yea7i-Baptiste  or  des  Connetables,  which  con- 
tains the  very  interesting  tomb  of  Bertrand  Duguesclin, 
Comte  de  Longueville  and  Constable  of  France,  who  died 
in  1380  before  the  walls  of  Chateauneuf  de  Rangon. 

"  '  Messire  Bertrand  jura  que  jamais  ne  partiroit  d'illec  qu'il 
n'eut  le  chatel  a  son  plaisir.  Mais  une  maladie  le  prit,  dont  il 
accoucha  au  lit  ;  pour  ce  ne  se  defit  mie  du  siege  ;  mais  ses  gens 
en  furent  plus  aigres  que  devant  "  (Froissart).  The  Marechal  de 
Sancerre  informed  the  English  governor,  in  the  name  of  Du  Gues- 
clin,  that  all  the  garrison  would  be  put  to  the  sword  if  it  was  taken 
by  assault.  The  hostile  leader  capitulated,  and  brought  the  keys 
of  the  castle  to  Messire  Bertrand  ;  he  found  him  stretched  on  his 
death-bed.  The  good  constable  collected  the  remains  of  his 
forces  to  receive  this  trophy  of  his  conquest,  and  gave  up  the 
ghost  a  few  moments  afterwards,  at  the  age  of  sixty-six." — Mar- 
tin, '^ Hist,  de  France.'' 

"  Decimam  Gallorum  ex  gente  figuram, 
Militis  insignis  Claschina,  prole  Britanna 
Nati,  Bertrandi,  quo  nullus  major  in  armis 
Tempestate  sua  fuit,  aut  praestantior  omni 
Virtute,  et  toto  fama  praeclarior  orbe." 

Antoiiie  Astesan,  1451. 

The  funeral  oration  of  Bertrand  Duguesclin  in  1580  is 
the  first  example   of  a  funeral   oration   pronounced   in  a 


178 


DA  YS  NEAR  PARIS 


church.^  A  white  marble  statue  commemorates  the  Con- 
stable Louis  de  Sancerre,  1402^  brother-in-arms  of  Ber- 
trand  Duguesclin  and  Olivier  de  Clisson.  "'Enfants,' 
disait-il  a  ses  gens  lorsqu'ils  allaient  en  guerre,  '  en 
quelque  etat  qu'un  homme  se  trouve,  il  doit  toujours  faire 
son  honneur. '  " 

Near  Duguesclin,  two  months  later,  was  laid  the  king 
he  served,  Charles  V.,  le  Sage,  1380 — whose  characteristic 
statue  reposes  on  a  modern  tomb  of  black  marble,  with 
that  of  his  queen  jfeaime  de  Bourbon,  i377)  daughter  of 
Pierre  I.,  Due  de  Bourbon,  who  was  killed  at  Poitiers. 
The  statue  of  the  queen  was  brought  from  the  church  of 
the  Celestins  at  Paris,  where  her  entrails  were  buried,  as 
is  indicated  in  the  figure,  by  the  bag  in  its  hands,  which  is 
supposed  to  contain  them.  From  the  same  church  were 
brought  two  niches  containing  statues  of  Charles  V.  and 
Jeanne,  which  formerly  decorated  the  portal,  destroyed  in 

1847. 

Another  modern  tomb  bears  the  remarkable  effigies — 
apparently  portraits — of  Charles  VI.,  1422,  who  died 
insane,  and  his  wicked  wife  Isabeau  de  Baviere,  1435.  H^'* 
crowned  head  bears  a  double  veil,  the  upper  fastened  to 
the  lower  by  long  pins.  This  hated  queen  was  brought 
to  St.  Denis  in  a  boat  by  night,  unattended — "  ni  plus  ni 
moins  qu'une  simple  demoiselle."  ^  A  third  tomb,  almost 
similar  to  the  two  last,  commemorates  Charles  VII.,  14-61, 
and  his  wife,  Marie  d^AnJou,  1463,  daughter  of  Louis  11., 
king  of  Naples. 

Against  the  wall  of  this  chapel,  the  burial-place  of 
Charles  V.,  have  been  placed  two  curious  sculptured  slabs 
commemorating  the  Battle  of  B olivines,  12 14,  brought  from 
the  church  of  St.  Catherine   du  Val-des-Ecoliers,  founded 

^  Saint-Foix,  Essais  hist,  sur  Paris.  -  Brantome. 


THE   ROYAL    TOMBS 


179 


by  the  sergeants-at-arms  in  thanksgiving  for  that  victory, 
the  Confraternity  of  Sergeants-at-arms  owing  its  foundation 
to  Charles  V.  The  inscriptions  on  these  curious  monu- 
ments tell  how  St.  Louis  laid  the  first  stone  of  the  church 
of  St.  Catherine  as  a  thank-offering  for  the  victory  of  Bou- 
vines.  "  Les  sergents  d'armes,  qui  gardaient  le  pont, 
avaient  promis  une  eglise  a  Madame  Sainte  Catherine,  si 
Dieu  leur  donnait  victoire,  et  ainsi  fut-il."  The  first  of  the 
slabs  bears  one  of  the  earliest  known  representations  of 
St.  Louis. 

To  the  wall  of  the  transept  is  removed  the  beautiful 
canopied  tomb  erected,  in  the  church  of  the  Ce'lestins  at 
Paris,  by  Fran9oise  d'Alengon,  to  her  seven-years-old 
child,  Re7iee  d^ Orleans  LoJigueville^  15 15)  daughter  of  Fran- 
cois IL,  Due  de  Longueville,  who  died  in  the  abbatial 
hotel  of  St.  Genevieve.  The  crowned  effigy  of  the  child, 
holding  a  rosary,  rests  upon  a  slab  of  black  marble  sup- 
ported on  a  sarcophagus,  decorated  with  statuettes  of 
virgin  saints.  Above  are  other  virgin  patronesses — the 
Madonna,  Margaret,  Catherine,  Barbara,  and  Genevieve 
bearing  a  lighted  taper,  which  a  devil  tries  to  extinguish 
and  an  angel  to  keep  alight. 

Descending  the  church,  we  now  come  on  the  right  to 
another  group  of  tombs.  That  of  Isabelle  d'Aragoriy  1271, 
daughter  of  James  L,  king  of  Aragon,  who  died  from  a 
fall  from  her  horse  while  crossing  a  river  at  Cosenza  in 
Calabria,  bears  her  white  marble  effigy  with  two  little  dogs 
at  her  feet.  Around,  in  white-marble  letters  inlaid  in  the 
black,  is  the  most  ancient    rhythmical  inscription  at  St. 

Denis : — 

"  Dysabel  lame  ait  paradys 

Dom  li  cors  gist  sovz  ceste  ymage 
Fame  av  roi  philippe  ia  dis 
Fill  lovis  roi  mort  en  cartage 


i8o  DAYS  NEAR   PARIS 

Le  jovr  de  sainte  agnes  seconde 
Lan  mil  CC.  dis  et  soisente 
A  cvsance  fv  morte  av  monde 
Vie  sanz  fin  dexli  consente." 

The  tomb  of  Philippe  le  Hardi,  1285,  who  died  at  Per- 
pignan,  bears  an  efBgy  which  is  supposed  to  be  the  eadiest 
authentic  royal  portrait-statue  at  St.  Denis.  Close  by  is 
the  monument  of  Philippe  IV.,  le  Bel,  13 14,  with  a  well- 
preserved  but  mannered  statue.  Behind  are  the  tombs  of 
Clovis  II.,  656,  son  of  Dagobert  I.  and  Nantilde,  and 
husband  of  St.  Bathilde  (buried  at  Chelles)  ;  and  Charles 
Martel,  741,  son  of  Pepin  d'Herstall,  famous  for  his 
victories  over  the  Saracens,  who  held  the  title  of  Maire  in 
the  palace  of  the  Francs,  or  of  "  Due  des  Frangais." 

On  the  left  side  of  the  transept  door  is  buried  Suger, 
the  great  abbot  of  St.  Denis,  who  built  the  greater  part  of 
the  church,  and  governed  France  during  the  crusade  of 
Louis  VII. 

We  now  reach,  on  the  left,  the  magnificent  tomb  of 
Francois  I.,  1547,  and  his  wife  Claude  de  France,  152 1,  one 
of  the  most  perfect  masterpieces  of  renaissance  archi- 
tecture and  sculpture  in  France,  designed  by  Philibert 
Delorme,  with  royal  effigies  by  Jean  Goujon,  and  exquisite 
sculptured  details  by  Germain  Pilon,  Pierre  Bontemps, 
Ambroise  Perret,  Jacques  Chantrel,  Bastien  Galles,  Pierre 
Bigoigne,  and  Jean  de  Bourges.  The  tomb  is  an  edifice 
of  white  marble  —  of  which  the  east  and  west  facades  are 
adorned,  each  with  twent}'-one  reliefs  representing  the 
campaigns  of  the  king,  with  the  battles  of  Marignan  and 
Ce'risoles.  Within  the  open  arches,  Frangois— a  sublime 
dead  warrior — and  Claude  (who  died  at  tvventy-one),  a 
gentle,  melancholy  girl,  are  seen  lying  in  death.  On  the 
platform  above  they  are  represented  a  second  time,  kneel- 


"PflE  ROYAL    TOMBS 


i8l 


ing  in  life,  with  their  children  behind  them — Charlotte  de 
France,  who  died  at  eight  years,  the  dauphin  Francois,  and 
Charles,  Due  d'Orleans. 

"They  exhibit  dignity,  simplicity,  and  repose,  and  the 
greatest  nobleness  of  conception  ;  the  wide  and  yet  unpretend- 
ing garments  fall  in  a  noble  manner,  and  the  linely-characterized 
heads  display  great  depth  of  expression." — Liibke. 

Under  one  of  the  arches  of  the  wall  arcade  is  the 
figure,  brought  from  the  church  of  the  Jacobins  in  Paris,  of 
Beatrix  de  Bourbon,  1383,  Queen  of  Bohemia,  daughter  of 
Louis  I.,  Due  de  Bourbon,  and  great-granddaughter  of  St. 
Louis,  whose  first  husband  was  Jean  de  Luxembourg, 
King  of  Bohemia,  killed  upon  the  battle-field  of  Cre'cy, 
and  who  afterwards  married  Eudes,  lord  of  Grancey  in 
Burgundy. 

Behind  the  tomb  of  Frangois  I.  and  Claude,  in  the 
chapel  of  St.  Michel,  is  the  exquisite  urn,  sculptured  by 
Pierre  Bontemps,  to  contain  the  heart  of  Francois  I.,  which, 
after  the  death  of  the  king  at  Rambouillet  (March  31, 
1547),  was  taken  to  the  abbey  of  Notre  Dame  de  Hautes- 
Bruyeres.  Close  to  the  urn,  on  its  ancient  site,  is  the 
effigy  of  Princess  Marguerite,  1382,  daughter  of  Philippe 
le  Long,  and  wife  of  Louis,  Comte  de  Flandre,  killed  at 
the  battle  of  Crecy.  She  died  at  the  age  of  seventy- 
two,  having  endowed  the  chapel,  where  she  was  buried. 
Much  more  of  the  original  tomb  remains  in  the  magasin 
of  the  church. 

Near  the  aisle  is  the  tomb  of  Charles,  Comte  d^Etampes, 
1336,  son  of  Louis,  Comte  d'Evreux,  brought  from  the 
church  of  the  Cordeliers  at  Paris,  where  it  occupied  a 
place  behind  the  high- altar. 

The  group  of  monuments  behind  was  originally  erected 
by  Louis  XIL,  the  son  of  Charles,  Due  d'Orleans,  to  his 


i82  DAVS  NEAR  PARIS 

father,  uncle,  grandfather,  and  grandmother,  in  the  church 
of  the  Celestins  at  Paris.  The  fragments  were  brought 
hither  and  restored.  On  a  quadrangular  base,  surrounded 
by  twenty-four  niches,  are  the  statues  of  Charles^  Due  d"  Or- 
leans, 1465,  and  Philippe,  Co77ite  de  Vertus,  1420.  Between 
these  figures  rises  a  sarcophagus  bearing  the  effigies — full 
of  character — of  their  parents,  Louis  de  France,  Due  d^  Or- 
leans, 1407,  second  son  of  Charles  V.,  and  his  wife  Val- 
entine de  Milan,  1408,  from  whom  both  Louis  XI L  and 
Francois  I.  descended.  Twenty  of  the  statuettes  which 
surround  the  tomb  are  ancient.  It  was  Louis  d'Orleans 
who  built  the  chateaux  of  Pierrefonds  and  la  Ferte-Milon, 
and  who  was  murdered  in  the  Rue  Barbette.  Charles 
d'Orleans  was  the  poet-duke,  who  languished  as  a  prisoner 
at  Windsor  for  twenty-five  years  after  the  battle  of  Agin- 
court.  With  these  monuments  at  the  Celestins  was  the 
urn  of  the  little  Due  de  Valois,  1656,  with  the  touching 
inscription  by  his  parents,  the  Due  and  Duchesse  d'Or- 
leans : — 

"  Blandulus,  eximius,  pulcher,  dulcissimus  infans, 
Deliciae  matris,  deliciseque  patris, 
Hie  situs  est  teneris  raptus  Valesius  annis, 
Ut  rosa  quae  subitis  imbribus  icta  cadit." 

The  Magasi?ts  of  the  church  still  contain  many  pre- 
cious historic  fragments,  and  it  is  much  to  be  regretted 
that  they  are  not  all  replaced  in  the  upper  church.  A 
mutilated  effigy,  if '  original,  or  a  fragment  of  a  sepulchral 
canopy,  would  always  have  an  interest  which  no  later, 
though  perfect,  work  can  inspire. 

A  modern  copy  near  the  high-altar  commemorates  the 
famous  Orifia?n77ie  {aurijia77ima — from  its  red  and  gold), 
the  standard  of  St.  Denis,  which  became  the  banner  of  the 
kings  of   France,  and  always   accompanied  them  to  the 


THE  ROYAL    TOMBS  183 

battle-field :  its  last  appearance  was  on  the  field  of  Agin- 
court.  The  other  precious  objects  which  once  filled  the 
treasury  of  St.  Denis,  and  which  included  the  chair  of 
Dagobert,  the  hand  of  Justice  of  St.  Louis,  the  sword  of 
Jeanne  Dare,  and  the  coronation  robes  of  Louis  XIV.,  all 
perished  at  the  Revolution.  Waxen  effigies  of  the  French 
kings  were  formerly  to  be  seen  here,  as  still  at  West- 
minster. 

'  In  a  certain  loft  or  higher  roome  of  the  church  I  saw  the 
images  of  many  of  the  French  kings,  set  in  certain  woden  cup- 
bords,  whereof  some  were  made  onely  to  the  middle  with  their 
crownes  on  their  heads.  But  the  image  of  the  present  king 
(Henri  IV.)  is  made  at  length  with  his  parliament  roabes,  his 
gowne  lined  with  ermins,  and  his  crowne  on  his  head." — Coryafs 
"'  Crudities  y 

The  Abbey  of  St.  Denis,  ruled  by  a  line  of  sixt}'-three 
abbots,  several  of  whom  were  kings  of  France,  has  entirely 
disappeared.  Mme  de  Maintenon  appropriated  its  reve- 
nues for  the  institution  of  St.  Cyr.  A  house  of  education 
for  daughters  of  members  of  the  Legion  of  Honor  occupies 
the  modern  buildings. 

In  the  church  called  La  Fa7visse,  which  was  the  chapel 
of  the  Carmelite  convent,  a  grave  is  pointed  out  as  that 
of  Henriette  d'Angleterre,  youngest  daughter  of  Charles  I., 
and  wife  of  Gaston  d'Orleans,  brother  of  Louis  XIV.  ;  her 
body,  however,  was  amongst  those  exhumed  in  the  abbey 
church. 

In  the  Carmelite  convent,  Louise  Marie  de  France, 
"Madame  Louise,"  third  daughter  of  Louis  XV.,  took  the 
veil  in  1770;  there  she  was  constantly  visited  by  her 
nephew,  Louis  XVI.,  and  there  she  died,  before  the  trou- 
bles of  the  Revolution,  December  23,  1787. 

"A  moment  before  her  death,  she  cried,  'It  is  time,  then,' 


184  DA  YS  NEAR  PARIS 

and  a  few  instants  afterwards,  '  Come,  let  us  rise,  let  us  hasten 
to  Paradise.'  These  were  the  last  words  pronounced  by  this 
saintly  princess." — Proyart,  "  Vie  de  A/adame  Louise." 


After  a  morning  passed  laboriously  at  St.  Denis,  a 
delightful  afternoon  may  be  spent  in  the  forest  of  Mont- 
morency, returning  to  Paris  in  the  evening.  There  is,  how- 
ever, nothing  especial  to  see,  and  the  excursion  is  only 
worth  while  to  those  not  pressed  for  time,  who  wish  for  a 
pleasant  drive  or  walk  in  pretty  country.  Trains  may  be 
joined  at  St.  Denis.  They  run  every  hour  from  the  Gare 
du  Nord  to — 

ii|-/^.  Enghien  les  Bams  (Hotel  dcs  Qiiatre  Pavilions)^ 
a  village  much  frequented,  since  1821,  for  its  mineral  wa- 
ters, with  an  artificial  lake.  Here  trains  are  changed. 
The  line  then  passes — 

Soisy,  where  James  H.  of  England  lived  for  a  time, 
and  planted  a  wood  which  bears  his  name. 

14/^.  Montmorency  (Hotel  de  France;  Cheval  Blanc), 
where  numbers  of  carriages,  horses,  and  donkeys  are  wait- 
ing for  excursions  in  the  forest.  This  pretty  place,  famous 
for  its  cherries,  has,  from  the  X.  c,  given  a  name  to  one 
of  the  most  illustrious  families  in  France.  Its  chateau, 
with  halls  decorated  by  Lebrun  and  gardens  by  Lenotre, 
has  perished,  and  most  of  the  tombs  of  the  Montmorency 
family  in  the  Church  were  destroyed  in  the  Revolution : 
that  of  the  great  Constable  Anne — the  brave  warrior  who 
served  under  five  kings,  fought  in  two  hundred  battles,  and 
was  unable  to  read — was  broken  up,  and  its  fragments  are 
now  to  be  seen  in  the  Musee  of  the  Louvre,  to  which  the 
portrait  of  Guillaume  de  Montmorency,  which  hung  in  the 
church,  has  also  been  removed.     Between  the  Rue  Notre 


MONTMORENCY 


'85 


Dame  and  the  Rue  de  Paris  are  some  remains  of  an  old 
convent  of  the  Templars. 

Turning  to  the  left  from  the  station,  and  following  the 
boulevard  to  the  end,  we  find,  on  the  left,  two  groups  of 
fine  old  chestnut  trees.  In  front  of  the  first  of  these,  "Z<z 
Chataigneraie,''^  are  several  restaurants  ;  in  the  second  is  a 
very  ugly  ruined  house  of  three  stories,  with  some  doggerel 
verses  on  its  face.  This  is  the  so-called  "  Hermitage " 
built  for  Jean-Jacques  Rousseau  by  Mme  d'Epinay,  on  a 
site  where  the  hermit  Leroy  had  built  a  cottage  in  1659. 
Rousseau  came  to  inhabit  it  April  9,  1756,  and  wrote  his 
Nouvelle  Helo'ise  there.  He  thus  describes  his  retreat,  to 
M.  de  Malesherbes  : — 

"What  time,  would  3'ou  believe,  sir,  I  recall  most  frequently 
and  most  willingly  in  my  dreams?  It  is  the  pleasures  of  my 
retreat,  it  is  my  lonely  walks,  it  is  the  quick  passing  yet  delight- 
ful days,  that  I  have  passed  with  myself,  with  my  good  and 
simple  housekeeper,  with  my  beloved  dog,  with  my  old  cat,  with 
the  birds  of  the  fields  and  the  fawns  of  the  forests  ;  with  absolute 
nature  and  her  author,  who  is  be3'ond  all  conception.  Rising 
before  the  sun,  to  go  and  see  and  contemplate  his  rising  in  my 
garden,  when  I  saw  a  fine  day  begin,  my  first  wish  was  that 
neither  letters  nor  visits  should  come  to  break  its  chaim.  .  .  . 
I  hurried  through  dinner  to  escape  importunate  guests.  Be- 
fore one  o'clock,  in  even  the  most  scorching  days,  I  set  out,  in 
full  sunshine,  with  my  faithful  Achates  hurrjang  on,  in  the  dread 
that  some  one  might  come  and  seize  me  before  I  had  been  able 
to  get  away  ;  but,  once  that  I  had  doubled  a  certain  corner,  with 
what  thrills  of  joy  did  I  begin  to  breathe  as  I  found  myself  saved, 
saying  to  myself,  *  Now  I  am  my  own  master  for  the  rest  of  the 
day  !  '  I  then  went,  with  a  more  tranquil  step,  to  seek  some  wild 
spot  in  the  forest  ....  some  asylum  to  which  I  could  fancy  I 
had  been  the  first  to  penetrate,  and  where  no  importunate  third 
person  could  come  to  interpose  between  nature  and  me.  It  was 
here  that  she  seemed  to  unfold  to  my  eyes  a  magnificence  ever 
new.  The  gold  of  the  broom  and  the  purple  of  the  heather 
struck  my  eyes  with  a  luxuriance  which  touched  my  heart  ;  the 
majesty  of  the  trees  that  covered  me  with  their  shade,  the  deli- 


i86  DA  YS  NEAR  PARIS 

cacy  of  the  shrubs  that  engirt  me,  the  astonishing  variety  of 
the  trees  and  the  flowers  I  trod  beneath  my  feet,  kept  my  spirit  in 
a  continual  alternation  of  observation  and  admiration  ;  the 
assemblage  of  so  many  interesting  objects  that  disputed  for  my 
attention,  attracting  me  ceaselessly  from  one  to  another,  favored 
my  dreamy,  idle  humor,  and  made  me  often  repeat  inwardly, 
'  No,  Solomon,  in  all  his  glory,  was  never  clad  like  one  of 
these.'  .   .   . 

"So  passed  away,  in  a  continual  delirium,  the  most  charm- 
ing days  that  ever  human  creature  has  passed  ;  and  when  the  set- 
ting of  the  sun  made  me  think  of  retiring,  astonished  at  the 
quick  flight  of  time,  I  believed  I  had  not  profited  sufficiently  by 
my  day." 

The  hermitage,  becoming  national  property  at  the  Rev- 
olution, passed  into  the  hands  of  Robespierre,  who  slept 
there  only  three  days  before  his  execution.  In  1798,  the 
house  was  bought  by  the  musical  composer  Gretry,  who 
wrote  there  his  six  volumes  of  Reflexions  dhin  solitaire, 
and  died  in  18 13.  His  heart  was  buried  in  the  garden, 
but  afterwards  removed. 

One  of  the  old  chestnut  trees  in  front  of  the  house  is 
especially  shown  as  having  been  planted  by  Rousseau. 
When  he  left  the  hermitage  in  Dec.  15,  1757,  he  moved  to 
the  house  called  Le  Petit  St.  Louis,  where  he  finished  the 
Nouvelle  Heloise,  and  sta3'ed  till  April  9,  1762.  A  stone 
table  on  its  terrace  bore  a  copper  plate,  inscribed — 

"  C'est  ici  qu'un  grand  homme  a  passe  ses  beaux  jours  ; 

.  Vingt  chefs-d'oeuvre  divers  en  ont  marque  le  cours  ; 
C'est  ici  que  sont  nes  et  Saint  Preux  et  Julie, 
Et  cette  simple  pierre  est  I'autel  du  genie." 

The  first  turn  on  the  left  of  the  boulevard  after  leaving 
the  station,  and  then  the  first  turn  to  the  right,  takes  us 
into  the  Foret  de  Montmorency.  After  emerging  from  the 
village,  the  main  road  follows  a  terrace  on  the  hillside, 
with  a  beautiful  view  over  Paris,  the  plain,  and  the  low- 


GROLA  Y  187 

wooded  hills.  At  3  k.  is  Andilly,  once  the  property  of  the 
famous  Arnaud  d'Andilly,  who  sold  it  when  he  retired  to 
Port-Royal.  Half  an  hour's  walk  from  hence,  through  the 
forest,  leads  to  the  XIV.  c.  Chateau  de  la  C/iasse,  once 
moated  and  surrounded  by  four  towers,  of  which  two 
remain.  A  little  north-west  of  this  is  the  valley  of  St. 
Radegonde,  so  called  from  a  chapel  belonging  to  the 
abbey  of  Chelles.  It  was  here  that  the  minister  Roland 
took  refuge  in  the  Revolution,  before  he  fled  to  Rouen. 
The  village  of  Grolay  (i\  /^.),  where  the  church  has  good 
stained  glass,  is  another  spot  which  may  be  visited  from 
Montmorency. 


VII. 

ST.    LEU    TAVERN Y,    THE   ABBA  YE   DU    VAL,   AND 

PONTOISE. 

THIS  is  a  delightful  summer  clay's  excursion  from  the 
Gare  du  Nord.     Tickets  must  be  taken  to  St.  Leu 
Taverny,  thence  to  Meriel,  thence  to  Pontoise. 

\Z.k.  St.  Leu  Taverny  (Hotel,  Croix  Blanche). — The 
modern  church  faces  the  station,  at  the  end  of  a  road  lined 
by  villas.  (The  sacristan  is  to  be  found  at  No.  12  Grande 
Rue.)  Behind  the  altar  is  the  stately  tomb  of  Louis  Bona- 
parte, King  of  Holland,  who  died  at  Leghorn,  desiring  to 
be  brought  hither  to  rest  by  the  two  sons  who  had  died 
before  him.  Below  the  king's  statue  are  busts  of  his  father 
and  his  two  sons  ;  on  either  side  are  statues — Faith  and 
Charity.  In  the  crypt  beneath  are  four  huge  sarcophagi, 
of  equal  size,  though  the  elder  boy,  Napoleon,  died  at  five 
years  old.  The  death  of  the  second  boy,  Louis,  at  Forli, 
was  a  terrible  affliction  to  Napoleon  I.  and  Josephine. 

"This  child  would  have  been,  had  he  lived,  a  very  dis- 
tinguished man.  He  was  extraordinarily  like  his  father,  and 
consequently  like  the  Emperor.  He  was  a  charming  child,  with 
a  goodness  and  firmness  of  character  that  equally  spoke  of  a 
moral  resemblance  with  his  uncle." — "Ule/iioircs  dc  la  Diuhesse 
d'Abranth:' 

Opposite  the  sarcophagus  of  King  Louis  is  that  of  his 
father,  Charles  Bonaparte,  who  died  at  Montpelier. 


ST.    LEU    TAVERN Y  189 

A  chapel,  which  belonged  to  an  older  church,  contains 
the  tomb  of  Mme  le  Broc,  niece  of  the  famous  Mme 
Campan,  who  fell  from  a  precipice  whilst  visiting  a  water- 
fall near  Aix  les  Bains,  in  the  presence  of  her  sister,  Mare- 
chale  Ney,  and  of  Queen  Hortense,  to  whom  she  was 
lady-in-waiting.  The  queen  herself  is  buried  with  Joseph- 
ine at  Rueil. 

St.  Leu  Taverny  once  possessed  two  famous  chateaux. 
One  of  these  belonged  to  the  Due  d'Orleans,  whose  chil- 
dren were  educated  there  by  Mme  de  Genlis.  The  other 
had  been  inhabited  by  the  Constable  Mathieu  de  Mont- 
morency. The  grounds  of  the  chateaux  were  united  by 
Louis  Bonaparte,  brother  of  Napoleon  I.,  and  that  of 
Montmorency  pulled  down.  The  other  chateau  became  a 
palace  and  gave  the  title  of  Comte  de  St.  Leu  to  King 
Louis  after  he  abdicated  the  throne  of  Holland ;  after  his 
separation  from  Queen  Hortense,  St.  Leu  was  made  a 
duchy  for  her.  After  the  second  Restoration,  the  Prince 
de  Conde,  Due  de  Bourbon,  bought  St.  Leu,  and  was 
found  hanged  to  the  cord  of  the  window,  August  28,  1830. 
He  bequeathed  St.  Leu  to  his  mistress,  Mme,de  Feucheres, 
who  sold  it,  and  the  chateau  was  pulled  down  in  1835. 

Five  minutes'  walk  from  the  church  (turning  to  the  left 
from  the  door^  and  again  to  the  left  by  the  Rue  du  Cha- 
teau) on  the  site  of  his  chateau,  is  a  garden  with  a  cypress 
avenue  and  a  cross  in  memory  of  the  Due  de  Bourbon. 

"The  Duke  de  Bourbon  was  hanging  from  the  fastening  of  the 
north  window,  by  two  handkerchiefs  passed  one  through  the 
other  ;  the  first  forming  a  f^at  elongated  ring,  the  second,  an  oval, 
the  lower  part  of  which  supported  the  lower  jaw,  and  ended  be- 
hind the  head  on  the  top.  The  handkerchief,  intended  to  choke, 
had  not  a  running  noose,  it  did  not  press  the  artery,  left  the  nape 
visible,  and  was  so  loose  that  between  the  folds  and  the  head 
some   of  the  spectators   could    easily  insert  their   fingers.    .    .    . 


190 


DA  YS  NEAR  PARIS 


This  arrangement  and  the  appearance  of  the  body,  strongly  re- 
futed the  hypothesis  of  suicide.  They  struck  with  surprise  most 
of  the  witnesses." — Louis  Blanc,  ''Hist,  de  dix  ansy 

Taverny,  2  k.  from  St.  Leu,  has  a  church,  partly  XIII.  c. 
The  Hue  runs  through  cherry  orchards  to — 

2^k.  Me?-y.  The  church  contains  several  spoils  of  the 
Abbaye  du  Val — a  XV.  c.  pulpit,  an  XVIII.  c.  lectern, 
four  stalls,  and  some  tombs,  especially  those  of  Charles 


ABBAYE   DU   VAL. 


Villiers  of  ITsle-Adam,  Bishop  of  Beauvais,  and  of  Charles 
de  Montmorency  and  his  third  wife,  Peronnelle  du  Villiers. 
The  sanctuary  is  XIII.  c,  except  the  vaulting.  Behind  is 
a  chateau  built  by  Pierre  d'Orgemont,  Chancellor  of 
France,  at  the  end  of  the  XIV.  c. 

2Zk.  Meriel,  whence  it  is  2  k.  to  the  Abbaye  du  Val. 
Turn  to  the  left  from  the  station,  under  the  railway ;  then 
take  the  first  turning  to  the  left,  where  a  tramway  crosses 
the  road.  On  reaching  a  cross  in  the  cornfields,  turn  to 
the  right,  and,  in  the  next  wooded  hollow,  find  the  gate  of 
the  enclosure  of  the  Abbaye  du  Val,  which  was  founded 


ABBA  YE   DU  VAL  igi 

1 1 25,  and  was  a  favorite  resort  of  the  kings  of  France.  In 
1646  it  was  united  witli  the  Monastery  of  the  Feuillants  at 
Paris.  Sold  at  the  Revolution,  it  has  since  been  partially 
demolished  for  the  sake  of  its  materials.  Still,  there  are 
huge  remains.  The  existing  buildings  include  the  east 
corridor  of  the  cloister,  with  several  vaulted  halls,  of  which 
the  pillars  are  partially  buried,  on  the  ground  floor,  includ- 
ing the  chapter-house  and  refectory  of  late  XII.  c.  On 
the  first  floor  is  the  ancient  dormitory,  a  vast  vaulted  gothic 
hall,  divided  into  two  aisles  by  eight  columns  with  sculpt- 
ured capitals.  The  divisions  of  the  cells  are  marked  by 
the  windows,  each  monk  having  one.  Near  the  south 
gable  of  this  dormitory  stood  the  church,  of  which  the 
walls  of  the  apse  and  some  pillars  on  the  south  have  been 
unearthed.  To  the  west  of  the  cloister  are  several  low 
vaulted  gothic  halls,  a  staircase  of  the  XIII.  c,  and  a  ves- 
tibule rebuilt  in  the  XVII.  c.  Opposite  the  farm  stood 
the  palace  of  the  abbot,  of  which  only  the  foundations  re- 
main. On  the  ground  floor  of  an  adjacent  building,  the 
lavatory  of  the  monks  remains,  on  the  line  of  the  stream 
Vieux-Moutier ;  on  the  first  floor  is  a  gallery  of  the  XV.  c; 
under  ground  is  a  gallery  communicating  from  the 
lavatory  with  the  cellar  and  ice-house  of  XIII.  c.  The 
very  picturesque  moulin  d'eii  haut  (threatened  with  de- 
struction, 1887)  has  perfectly-preserved  buildings  of  the 
XV.  c,  on  the  brook  Vieux-Moutier,  of  which  the  source 
is  not  far  distant. 

One  of  the  high  officials  of  the  first  empire,  Comte 
Regnault  de  Saint-Jean-d'Angely,  transformed  the  abbey 
into  a  chateau,  and  raised  a  colossal  statue  of  Napoleon  I. 
in  the  park ;  but  all  his  works  have  already  perished. 

Pedestrians  will  walk  across  to  the  station  of  Auvers, 
on  the  opposite  line,  or  one  may  go  on  from  Meriel  to  the 


192 


DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 


next  station  of  Valmondois,  and  there  wait  for  a  train  going 
south  to — 

T)2i  k.  (from  Paris),  Auvers. — The  noble  cruciform 
church,  situated  on  a  height,  has  a  picturesque  gabled 
tower.  The  chapel  at  the  end  of  the  left  aisle  is  XII.  c. 
The  choir  was  rebuilt  in  the  XVI.  c.  The  nave  (XIII.  c. 
or  early  XIV.  c.)  is  surrounded  by  a  gothic  gallery. 

29  /^.  Pofttoisc  (Hotels  du  Pontoise,  de  la  Gare ;  omni- 
bus 20  c. ). — A  very  picturesque  little  town  on  a  height 
above  the  Oise,  which  is  crossed  by  a  stone  bridge  of  five 


FIFTEENTH-CENTURY    MILL    (ABBAVE    DV    VAL). 

arches.     Pontoise  existed  in  the  time  of  the  Gauls,  who 

called    it   Briva  Isarae   (the   bridge    of   the    Oise)  :    the 

Romans  called  it  Pons  Isarae.     The  early  kings  of  France 

were  often  here.     Philippe  I.  coined  moneta  Fontisiensis, 

St.  Louis  spent  the  early  years  of  his  married  life  here,  in 

a  castle  in  the  upper  tower,  Mont  Belien,^  and  here,  after 

recovering  from  a  dangerous  illness,  in   1244,  he  took  the 

vows  of  a  crusader. 

"La   roine  mere  faisoit  a  la   roine   Marguerite  de  grandes 
rudesses  ;  elle  ne  vouloit  souffrir  que  le   roi  hantat  la  roine  sa 

*  Only  destroyed  in  the  XVIII.  c. 


PONTOISE  IQ2 

femme,  ni  demeurat  en  sa  compagnie  ;  et,  quand  _e  roi  chc- 
vauchoit  aucunes  fois  par  sa  royaumc  avec  les  deux  roines,  com- 
munenient  la  roine  Blanche  faisoit  separer  le  roi  ct  la  roinc 
Marguerite,  et  ils  n'etoient  jamais  logis  ensemblement.  Et 
advint  une  fois  qu'eux  etant  a  Pontoise,  le  roi  etoit  loge  au- 
dessus  du  logis  de  la  roine  sa  femme  et  avait  instruit  ses  huissiers 
de  salle  de  telle  fagon,  que  quand  il  etoit  avec  ladite  roine  et  que 
madame  Blanche  vouloit  venir  en  la  chambre  du  roi  ou  en  celle 
de  la  roine,  les  huissiers  battoient  les  chiens,  afin  de  les  faire 
crier,  et,  quand  le  roi  entendoit  cela,  il  se  mussoit  [se  cachait]  de 
sa  mere." — Joi/iville. 

In  1437  ^^^  town  was  taken  by  the  English  under 
Talbot,  who  covered  his  men  with  white  sheets,  and  so 
enabled  them  to  come  close  to  the  walls  unobserved  dur- 
ing a  hea\y  snowstorm.  Amongst  the  many  historical 
events  which  have  since  occurred  at  Pontoise,  we  may 
notice  the  consecration  of  Bossuet,  as  Bishop  of  Meaux, 
in  the  church  of  the  Cordeliers,  which  possessed  a  mag- 
nificent refectory,  three  times  used  for  meetings  of  Parlia- 
ment. 

Winding  streets  lead  up  into  the  town,  passing  the 
church  of  Notre  Dame,  which  is  renaissance,  though 
founded  XIII.  c.  It  has  a  very  wide  central  aisle,  on  the 
right  of  which  is  the  beautiful  altar-tomb  of  St.  Gautier, 
1 1 46,  bearing  his  figure,  with  four  little  angels  swinging 
censers  at  the  extremities.  Gautier  was  the  first  abbot  of 
St.  Martin  of  Pontoise.  Disagreeing  with  his  monks,  he 
fled  from  them  to  Cluny,  but  was  forced  to  return  in  1072  : 
soon  he  left  them  again,  to  live  in  a  cave,  where  he  gave 
himself  up  to  flagellation  and  penance,  and  finally  he 
found  a  more  complete  seclusion  on  an  island  near  Tours. 
He  died  in  1094,  and,  as  he  was  censured  by  the  Council 
of  Paris  for  his  opinions,  imprisoned  for  contumacy,  and 
frequently  reproved  for  his  wandering  tendencies,^  it  is 

^  Gallia  Christiana.,  x.  254. 


ig4  DAYS  NBA  A'   PARIS 

strange  that  he  should  have  been  enrolled  amongst  the 
saints. 

Finely  placed,  at  the  highest  point  of  the  town,  is  the 
vast  and  stately  church  of  St.  Maclou,  which  has  a  noble 
tower  and  flamboyant  west  front.  The  choir  and  transept 
date  from  the  XII.  c,  but  have  later  vaulting.  In  the 
Chapelle  de  la  Passion  (first,  left)  is  a  splendid  St.  Sep- 
ulcre  with  eight  statues :  the  Resurrection  is  represented 
above,  and,  on  the  side  wall,  the  Maries  hurrying  to  the 
tomb.  The  Hotel  Dieu,  founded  by  St.  Louis,  was  rebuilt 
1823-27  :  its  chapel  contains  the  Healing  of  the  Paralytic, 
a  good  work  of  Philippe  de  Champaigtie.  At  the  entrance 
of  the  town  was  a  convent  of  English  Benedictines,  trans- 
ferred to  Boulogne  in  1659.  It  contained  the  tomb  of 
John  Digby,  brother  of  an  Earl  of  Bristol,  inscribed  "Hie 
jacet  umbra,  et  pulvis,  et  nihil." 

The  famous  Foire  de  St.  Martin  is  held  at  Pontoise  on 
November  11,  12,  and  13,  and  is  the  most  important  fair 
in  the  neighborhood  of  Paris. 

Beyond  the  river,  at  2  y^.,  is  Aumb7ie^  where  the  church 
of  St.  Ouefi,  founded  in  the  X.  c,  has  a  romanesque  XL  c. 
portal,  and  contains  an  image  of  the  Virgin,  given  by 
Queen  Blanche  to  the  Abbey  of  Maubuisson.  Returning 
from  St.  Ouen  d'Aumone  to  the  highway,  we  should  cross 
the  road,  and  then  the  railway  by  an  iron  bridge,  to  where 
the  gate  of  the  famous  Abbey  of  Maubuisson  still  crosses  a 
lane  on  the  right,  and  supports  a  covered  passage.  The 
greater  part  of  the  abbey  ruins  are  in  the  beautiful  gardens 
of  the  adjoining  chateau,  but  travellers  are  allowed  to  see 
them  on  applying  to  the  concierge.  When  the  abbey  was 
founded,  in  1236,  by  Queen  Blanche  of  Castile  for  nuns 
of  the  order  of  Citeaux,  it  was  at  first  called  Notre  Dame 
la  Royale ;  but  the  name  of  Maubuisson,  which  is  that  of 


ABBA  YE   DE   MA  UB  UISSON 


195 


a  neighboring  fief,  has  prevailed.  As  she  felt  the  approach 
of  death  (1253),  Queen  Blanche  summoned  the  abbess  to 
her  palace  at  Melun,  and  received  the  monastic  habit  from 
her  hands,  and,  after  her  death,  she  was  buried,  with  great 
pomp,  in  the  church  of  Maubuisson.  Here,  in  13 14, 
Blanche,  daughter  of  Othelin,  Comte  de  Bourgogne,  and 
wife  of  Philippe  de  Poitiers,  son  of  Philippe  le  Bel,  ac- 
cused, with  her  two  young  sisters-in-law,  of  adultery,  was 


GATEWAY    (aBBAYE    DE    MAUBUISSON"). 

shut  up  for  life.  But  the  convent  itself  had  a  very  scan- 
dalous reputation  in  later  days,  especially  when  Angelique 
d'Estrees,  sister  of  the  famous  Gabriel  le,  obtained  the  ap- 
pointment of  abbess  from  Henri  IV.,  and  spent  five-and- 
twenty  years  in  corrupting  the  sisterhood. 

"Without  any  hyprocrisy,  without  any  veil  or  subterfuge, 
she  boldly  organizes  a  worldly  life.  The  abbey  becomes  that  of 
Thelema ;  cards,  tables,  receptions,  promenades,  dainty  colla- 
tions, plenty  of  play  acting,  and  dancing,  all  in  company  of  gen- 
tle cavaliers,  amuse  the  leisure  of  these  recluses.  This  mirthful 
abode  is  the  meeting-place  of  the  young  nobility  of  the  neighbor- 


196 


DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 


hood.  Even  the  religious  of  St.  Martin  took  their  share  in  the 
fete,  and  nuns  and  monies  gave  themselves  the  pleasure  of  a  ball 
together." — Barron. 

Angelique  Arnauld  was  sent  from  Port  Royal  to  spend 
five  miserable  years  in  the  uphill  work  of  reforming  Mau- 
buisson,  where  she  had  been  educated  in  her  early  child- 
hood, and  Angelique  d'Estrees,  arrested  by  the  general  of 
her  Order,  was  carried  off  to  the  Filles  Penitentes  de  St. 
Marie,  at  Paris,  where,  though  she  once  contrived  to  es- 
cape and  return  to  Maubuisson  for  a  time,  she  ended  her 
days.  Succeeding  abbesses  were  not,  however,  much 
more  virtuous,  certainly  not  Louise-Marie  HoUandine, 
Princess  Palatine  (daughter  of  Frederick  IV.  of  Bohemia 
and  Elizabeth  Stuart,  daughter  of  James  I.),  and  aunt  of 
George  I.  of  England,  appointed  abbess  in  1664,  who  had 
had  fourteen  children,  and  used  to  swear  "  par  ce  ventre 
qui  a  porte  quatorze  enfants."  ^  In  her  latter  days,  how- 
ever, this  abbess  became  perfectly  respectable,  and  was 
very  highly  esteemed. 

"  I  have  again  made  a  visit  to  my  aunt,  the  Abbesse  of  Mau- 
buisson, and  found  her,  thanks  be  to  God,  still  more  lively  and 
gay  than  the  time  before.  She  has  more  gaiety,  more  vivacity, 
sight  and  hearing  better  than  mine,  although  she  is  thirty  years 
older,  for  on  the  ist  of  April  she  was  seventy-seven.  She  is 
painting  a  very  pretty  picture  for  Madame,  her  sister,  our  dear 
Electress  of  Brunswick  ;  it  is  the  Golden  Calf  after  Pussin.  She 
is  adored  in  her  convent,  she  leads  a  very  rigid  but  tranquil  life, 
never  eats  meat,  unless  seriously  sick,  sleeps  on  a  mattress  hard 
as  a  stone,  has  only  straw  chairs  in  her  chamber,  and  rises  at 
midnight  to  pray.  She  forgets  English  less  than  German,  for 
every  day  some  English  come  to  see  her,  and  besides  she  has 
English  nuns  in  her  convent." — Correspondance  de  Madame. 

The  ruins  are  of  great  extent,  though  the  abbey  church 
was  so  completely  destroyed  at  the  Revolution  that  noth- 

*  Lettres  cT Elizabeth-Charlotte,  Duchesse  d^Orlcans. 


ABBA  YE   DR  MAUBU/SSOA'  jgj 

ing  remains  but  bases  of  walls  and  pillars,  and  the  altar, 
embedded  in  shrubs  and  flowers.  Greatly  to  be  regretted 
are  the  magnificent  tombs,  including  those  of  Blanche  of 
Castile;  of  Bona  of  Luxembourg;  of  Charles  le  Bel;  of 
a  brother  of  St.  Louis  ;  of  Jean  de  Brienne,  Prince  of  Acre  ; 
of  Jeanne  de  France,  daughter  of  Charles  le  Bel  and 
Blanche  de  Bourgogne ;  of  Catherine  of  France,  daughter 
of  Charles  V.  ;  of  Jeanne,  daughter  of  Charles  VI.  ;  and 
of  Gabrielle  d'Estrees,  who  was  brought  hither  to  be  buried 
in  the  choir  of  her  sister's  abbey,  in  April,  1599.  The 
centre  of  the  choir  was  occupied  by  the  tomb  of  the  found- 
ress^ inscribed — 

"  Ex  te,  Castella  !  radians  ut  in  aethere  Stella, 
Prodiit  haec  Bianca,  quam  luget  natio  Franca. 
Rex  pater  Alphonsus,  Ludovicus  Rex  quoqiie  sponsus. 
Quo  viduata  regens  agit  ut  vigeat  requiescens. 
Hinc  peregrinante  nato,  bene  rexit  ut  ante  ; 
Tandem  se  Christo  coetu  donavit  in  isto, 
Cujus,  tuta  malis,  viguit  gens  Franca  sub  alls, 
Tanta  prius,  talis  jacet  hie  Pauper  Monialis." 

The  two  last  words  allude  to  the  fact  that  the  queen 
took  the  monastic  vows  five  days  before  her  death. 

The  magnificent  refectory  is  entire,  in  which  the  pri- 
oress, Mme  de  Cleri,  rebuked  Henri  IV.  with  profaning 
the  temples  of  God,  when  he  came  with  Gabrielle  d'Estrees 
to  the  abbey.  It  has  a  vaulted  roof,  supported  by  four 
columns,  but  is  subdivided  into  an  orangerie  and  dairy. 
The  gravestone  of  a  bishop  is  preserved  here.  The  dor- 
mitory above  is  destroyed,  and  replaced  by  a  terrace,  at 
the  end  of  which  some  curious  openings  are  seen,  over 
a  stream  which  runs  below  at  a  great  depth.  In  the  gar- 
dens, where  the  Mere  Marie  Angelique  used  to  walk  with 
St.  Francois  de  Sales,  there  are  some  traces  of  the  Palace 


198  DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 

o\  St.  Louis.  "  La  Chapelle  dc  Nuit  de  St.  Louis,"  sup- 
ported by  two  columns,  remained  entire  till  1884,  when 
the  columns  suddenly  gave  way,  without  a  moment's  warn- 
ing, and  all  was  instantaneously  buried  in  ruin.  A  little 
XVII.  c.  pavilion  of  the  abbess — a  kind  of  summer-house 
— remains.  There  is  a  magnificent  monastic  barn,  divided 
into  three  aisles  by  pillars ;  attached  to  the  gable  on  the 
interior  is  a  tourelle  with  a  staircase  to  the  roof  Tourelles 
of  the  XIV.  c.  remain  at  the  angles  of  the  park  wall. 

"  In  the  plan  of  the  Abbey  of  Maubuisson  there  is  still  found 
the  primitive  severity  of  the  Cistercian  arrangements,  but,  in  the 
style  of  the  architecture,  concessions  have  been  made  to  the  pre- 
vailing taste  of  the  epoch  ;  sculpture  is  no  longer  excluded  from 
the  cloisters,  the  rigorousness  of  St.  Bernard  yields  to  the  needs 
of  art,  which  then  made  itself  felt  even  in  the  most  modest 
buildings.  The  Abbey  of  Maubuisson  was  at  the  same  time  an 
agricultural  establishment  and  a  school  for  young  girls.  We 
see,  on  examining  the  plan  of  the  abbey,  that  this  monastery 
did  not  differ  from  those  adopted  for  communities  of  men." — 
Viollet-le-Duc. 


VIII.     . 

ECOUEN,    ROYAUMONT,    ST.     LEU-D' ESSERENT, 
CREIL,  NO  GEN  T-LE S-  VIER  GE S. 

REACHED  from  the  Gare  du  Nord,  Ecouen  is  on  the 
Hne  from  Paris  to  Beauvais.  Ecouen  and  Royau- 
mont  {via  Viarmes)  may  be  visited  in  one  day's  excursion  ; 
St.  Leu  d'Esserent  and  Nogent-les-Vierges  in  another. 
The  train  which  leaves  Paris  about  10.15  allows  three 
hours  at  St.  Leu,  which  gives  time  for  luncheon  at  the  little 
inn  by  the  river.  From  Creil  one  can  walk  or  drive  to 
Nogent-les-Vierges,  and  return  to  Paris  by  the  express 
trains  in  one  hour. 

The  line  to  Ecouen  follows  the  Chemin-de-fer  du  Nord 
to  St.  Denis,  whence  we  branch  off  on  the  left  to — 

13/^.  Groslay. — The  church,  XIII.  c.  and  renaissance, 
has  good  XVI.  c.  windows. 

15/^.  Sarcelles-St.  Brice. — St.  Brice  has  a  XIII.  c. 
steeple,  and  Sarcelles  (i  >^.,  by  omnibus)  has  a  curious 
church  of  the  XII.  c.  and  XVI.  c,  with  a  renaissance 
portal  and  romanesque  steeple. 

18  k.  EcoueJi. — The  town  is  2  k.  from  the  station.  An 
omnibus  meets  every  train.  Ecouen  is  a  pretty  wooded 
spot.  The  little  town  clusters  around  a  little  square  with 
an  old  chestnut  tree.  The  renaissance  church  with  fine 
vaulting   and   glass    (attributed   to  Jean  Cousin)    in   the 


200  ^A  YS  NEAR   PARIS 

chancel  and  aisle,  was  built  by  Jean  Bullant  for  the  famous 
Anne  de  Montmorency,  at  the  same  time  with  the  mag- 
nificent chateau,  which  rises  above  the  houses.  The  gothic 
choir  windows  bear  the  device  of  the  Montmorency, 
aTtAavw^,  and  the  dates  1544,  i545-  Bullant,  who  wrote 
his  Traite  des  cinq  ordrcs  oh  manieres  at  Ecouen,  died  here 
in  1578,  and  had  a  monument,  which  is  now  destroyed,  in 
the  church. 

The  chateau  of  Ecouen  was  founded  in  the  XI.  c,  by 
the  Barons  de  Montmorency.  The  Connetable  Anne  de- 
molished the  ancient  fortress,  and  replaced  it  by  a  magnifi- 
cent renaissance  palace  by  Bullant.  Primaticcio  furnished 
designs  for  the  two  chapel  windows.  It  was  here  that 
Henri  II.  published  his  famous  edict  of  1559,  pronouncing 
sentence  of  death  against  the  Lutherans.  Confiscated 
from  the  Montmorency  under  Louis  XIII.,  Ecouen  was 
given  to  the  Duchesse  d^Angouleme,  and  passed  to  the 
house  of  Conde,  to  whom  it  belonged  till  the  Revolution, 
when  its  treasures  were  dispersed.  Napoleon  restored 
the  fabric  of  the  chateau,  and  made  it  a  school  for 
daughters  of  members  of  the  Legion  of  Honor,  under 
the  famous  Mme  Campan.  It  was  restored  to  the  Prince 
de  Conde  at  the  Restoration,  but  returned  to  the  State  in 
1852,  and  is  now  once  more  a  school,  for  the  daughters  of 
officers.  There  is  no  admittance  to  the  chateau  or  its 
pretty  gardens ;  but  the  buildings  are  well  seen  from  the 
gate. 

4  k.  north  of  Ecouen  is  Le  Mesnil-Aubry,  with  a  very 
handsome  renaissance  church  ;  its  side  wall,  of  XV.  c,  has 
its  ancient  windows. 

2o|Z',  Domont. — The  choir  of  the  church  is  XII.  c; 
in  the  nave  and  transept  are  curious  XIII.,  XV.,  and 
XVI.  c.  gravestones. 


ABBA  YE  DE   ROYAUMONT 


201 


25  /'.  Monsoult. — 2  k.  north-west  is  Maffliers^  with  a 
church  partly  due  to  Phihbert  Delorme. 


A  branch  leads  east  to — 

7  k.  Viarmes. — 3  k.  north  are  the  interesting  remains 
of  the  still  occupied  Abbey  of  Royaumont  (Mons  Regalis), 
founded  in  1230  by  St.  Louis,  who  often  made  it  a  retreat, 


chAteau  of  ^couen. 

eating  with  the  monks  in  the  refectory,  and  sleeping  in 
their  dormitory.  Five  of  his  children  were  buried  in  the 
beautiful  XIII.  c.  church,  which  is  now  a  ruin.  The 
effigies  of  Prince  Jean  Tristan  and  Princess  Blanche  are 
now  at  St.  Denis.  Amongst  other  tombs  which  once 
existed  here,  was  that  of  Henri  de  Lorraine,  Comte  d'Har- 
court,  1666,  a  chef-d'oeuvre  of  Coysevox. 

The  cloister  and  the  refectory,  which  resembles  that  of 
St.  Martin  des  Champs  at  Paris,  are  preserved.     In  the 


202  -DA  YS  NEAR   PARTS 

centre  of  the  Litter  is  an  admirable  reader's  pulpit.   Visitors 
are  not  admitted  to  the  abbey. 

12  k.  LuzarcJies  (Hotel,  St.  Dai7iieii). — The  church  is 
XII.,  XIII.,  and  XIV.  c.  There  are  remains  of  a  chateau, 
and  of  the  priory  of  St.  Come,  with  a  gate  over  a  steep 
street.  3  k.  south  is  the  stately  XVI.  c.  Chateau  de  Cham- 
pldtreux,  belonging  to  the  Due  d'Ayen.  The  abbey  of 
Rocquemont  was  bought  at  the  Revolution  by  Sophie 
Amould  and  turned  into  a  villa,  whence  she  went  to 
represent  the  Goddess  of  Liberty  in  the  civic  fetes  at 
Luzarches. 


Zzk.  Fresles.—ThQ  church  is  XIII.,  XVL,  and  XVIII.c. 
Raoul  de  Presles  was  an  author  well  known  in  the  XIV.  c. 
3  k.  east,  in  the  forest  of  Carnelle,  is  La  Pierre  Ttirqiioise^ 
a  subterranean  avenue  of  Druidical  stones. 

38  k.  Persa7i-Beaui7i07it. — The  little  town  of  Beau77i07it- 
sur-Oise  gave  a  title  of  count  to  the  family  of  Conti.  It 
has  a  fine  XIII.  c.  church,  with  a  crocketed  stone  spire, 
and  remains  of  a  chateau  of  the  same  period.  Behind  the 
town  is  the  Forest  of  Car7iene.  Here  we  join  the  main- 
line from  Paris  to  Creil  via  Pontoise,  which  has  passed  at — 

40  k.  L' Isle-Ada77t,  where  the  Princes  de  Conti  had  a 
magnificent  chateau,^  destroyed  at  the  Revolution,  on  an 
island  in  the  Oise  ;  nothing  remains  but  a  terrace.  A 
modern  villa  replaces  the  chateau.  The  place  owes  its  name 
to  its  island,  upon  which  the  Constable  Adam  built  a 
chateau  in  1019,  under  Philippe  I.  The  church  is  of  the 
XVI.  c,  but  has  a  portal  attributed  to  Philibert  Delorme, 
and  was  built  at  the  cost  of  Anne  de  Montmorency  ;  in 

^  Armand  de  Conti  inherited  it  as  the  second  son  of  his  mother,  Charlotte 
de  Montmorency,  Princesse  de  Conde,  sister  and  heiress  of  Henri  II.  de  Mont- 
morency, beheaded  at  Toulouse  in  1633. 


S  T.    LE  U-D' ESSE  REN  T 


203 


one  of  its  modern  stained  windows  the  great  seigneurs  ol; 
I'lsle-Adam — Philippe  de  VilUers,  Louis  de  Villiers,  Anne 
de  Montmorency,  and  Francois  de  Bourbon,  Prince  de 
Conti,  are  seen  assisting  at  a  mass  celebrated  by  St.  Martin 
of  Tours.  \rv  a  chapel  to  the  left  is  the  tomb,  partially  de- 
stroyed at  the  Revolution,  of  Louis  Francois  de  Bourbon, 
Prince  de  Conti,  exiled  to  his  estates  of  Isle-Adam  by  the 
vengeance  of  Mme  de  Pompadour,  whom  he  had  treated 
with  great  disdain.  To  the  north-east  and  south-east  is 
the  Forest  of  V Isle- Adam. 

After  passing  Beaumont  the  line  reaches — 
53  k,  Boran. — A  suspension  bridge  over  the  Oise  leads 
(4  k.  south-east)  to  the  Abbey  of  Royaumont  (see  above). 
6  /'.  east  is  the  old  chateau  of  La  Morlaye,  occupying  the 
site  of  the  Merovingian  villa  of  Morlacum. 

di  k.  St.  Leii-d^ Esserent^  famous  for  its  quarries  of 
Pierre  de  St.  Leu.  The  noble  and  picturesque  church 
stands  finely  on  a  terraced  height.  It  is  approached  by  a 
striking  XII.  c.  porch  with  a  chamber  above  it.  The 
steeple,  of  11 60,  has  the  singularity  of  detached  hips  only 
united  by  rings  to  the  main  spire.  To  the  south  and  west 
the  church  is  surrounded  by  buttresses  and  flying  but- 
tresses. Kt  the  east  end  is  a  romanesque  tower  on  either 
side  of  the  sanctuary,  which  is  beautifully  constructed. 

"If  it  is  desired  to  ascertain  the  extreme  limit  to  which  the 
architects  of  the  end  of  the  XII.  c.  attained  in  lightness  of  the 
internal  points  of  support,  and  in  stability,  obtained  by  means  of 
the  equilibrium  of  opposing  forces,  it  is  necessary  to  see  the 
sanctuary  of  the  church  of  St.  Leu-d'Esserent." — Viollet-le-Dtic. 

There  are  considerable  remains,  near  the  west  end  of 
the  church,  of  a  priory,  founded  within  the  fortifications  of 
his  castle  by  Hugues  d'Esserent,  Comte  de  Dammartin,  in 
the  XL  c,  in  gratitude  to  the  Benedictines  of  the  Wood 


204 


DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 


of  St.  Michel,  who  paid  his  ransom  when  lie  was  taken 
prisoner  whilst  on  pilgrimage  to  Palestine.  The  most 
remarkable  remnant  of  the  j^riory  is  a  machicolated  gate- 
way of  the  XIV.  c.,  intended  apparently  as  much  for  the 
entrance  to  a  farm  as  for  a  fortified  gate.  There  are  beau- 
tiful later  renaissance  buildings. 

6t  k.  Creil  (Buffet ;  Hotel  de  PEpee,  Leon  d^ArgeJit^ 
des  Cheniijis-de-fer)^  the  ancient  Credulium,  is  a  pretty  town 
on  the  Oise.     Its  old  turreted   houses  rise  straight   from 


ST.  leu-d'esserent. 

the  river  by  the  bridge,  with  the  church  spire  behind  them. 
In  the  castle,  pulled  down  by  the  Prince  de  Conde  before 
the  Revolution,  was  a  chamber,  with  a  balcony  enclosed 
by  an  iron  grille,  where  Charles  VI.  was  shut  up  during 
his  madness.  The  island,  where  the  castle  once  stood,  is 
now  occupied  by  the  remains  of  the  Abbey  of  St.  Evre- 
mond,  of  which  the  desecrated  choir  exists,  and  shows 
some  friezes  of  great  beauty.  The  Church  has  a  tower 
and  crocketed  spire  (1551) ;  near  the  entrance  (right)  are 


NOGENT-LES-  VIERGES 


205 


remains    of  a    chimney  for    warming   the   water   used   in 
baptisms. 

I  k.  north-west  of  Creil  is  Nogent-les-  Vierges,  where 
Clovis  is  said  to  have  had  his  camp  when  he  drove  out  the 
Roman  legions  from  Gaul,  and  where  the  earliest  kings 
had  a  palace,  in  which  Thierry  III.  was  surprised  by  the 
rebel  Ebroin,  maire  du  palais,  in  673. 


:^-.  >^-s.— '>-^ 


*^V/— -^<^ 


^  •'^srS^, 


NOGENT-LES-VIERGES. 


To  the  right  is  the  Chu?'ch  of  Villcrs  St.  Paul  Its 
nave  and  aisles  are  romanesque,  with  gothic  arches  rest- 
ing upon  its  huge  columns  and  capitals.  The  choir  and 
tower,  flanked  by  four  tourelles,  are  gothic.  The  porch, 
in  the  fagade,  has  curious  sculptures. 

A  road  turning  to  the  left  at  the  entrance  of  the  village 


2o6  ^A  YS  NEAR   PARIS 

of  Nogent,  past  the  front  of  the  chateau  of  Villers,  leads 
for  2  k.  along  the  foot  of  the  hills  to  the  hamlet  of  Royau- 
mont,  above  which,  strikingly  placed  on  the  steep  rocky 
crest  of  a  wooded  hill,  with  an  old  chateau  nestling  under 
it,  and  a  wide  view  over  the  plain,  is  the  interesting  Church 
of  JVogent-les-Vierges,  dedicated  to  the  Assumption.  The 
beautiful  tower  has  three  tiers  of  arcades,  ornamented  at 
the  angles  by  columns,  twisted  or  adorned  with  foliage, 
and  with  a  gabled  roof.  The  very  ancient  nave — with 
gothic  additions — has  stone  roofs.  Two  bas-reliefs  on  the 
pillars  under  the  tower  come  from  the  destroyed  church  of 
St.  Marguerite  at  Beauvais.  The  gothic  choir  was  added 
by  St.  Louis :  it  is  lighted  by  seven  lancet  windows  of 
three  lights,  with  roses  above  them.  The  monument  of 
Messire  Jehan  Bardeau  is  signed  by  Michel  Bourdin.  In 
front  of  this  is  a  shrine  with  relics  of  Sts.  Maura  and 
Bridget,  Irish  virgins,  w^ho  gave  a  name  to  the  place,  hav- 
ing been  buried  here  after  their  martyrdom  at  Baligfiy 
I  k.  distant.  Close  by  is  the  sepulchral  chapel  of  Mare- 
chal  Gerard. 

"  It  happened  that,  in  the  time  of  Pope  Urban  III.  (who 
flourished  in  1185),  the  servants  of  Messire  Garnier,  Chevalier  de 
Senlis,  lost  one  night  a  black-haired  cow,  and  it  passed  the  night 
in  the  cemetery  of  Nogent  on  the  tomb  of  the  virgins  ;  the  men, 
having  found  her  lying  down,  forced  her  to  get  up,  and  found 
that  she  had  become  zuhite  on  the  side  that  had  touched  the  tomb ; 
marvelling  as  they  did,  one  of  them  said  to  the  other  that  it  was 
not  the  cow  they  had  lost  ;  the  other  replied,  that  if  it  was  the 
same,  she  would  return  to  her  place  just  as  she  was  accustomed, 
and  this  she  did  ;  which  caused  the  servants  to  repeat  this  marvel 
to  all  whom  they  met,  showing  the  cow  that  had  turned  white  on 
one  side.  After  this,  the  place  began  to  be  honored  and  visited 
by  those  afflicted  by  various  maladies,  wlio,  returning,  in  great  joy 
and  gladness,  sound  and  whole,  gave  praise  to  God.  Some  time 
thereafter  the  same  cow,  being  again  astray  and  passing  the  night 
at  the  same  spot,  lying  on  the  tomb  of  the  holy  virgins,  the  serv- 


VILLERS   ST.    PAUL  207 

ants,  not  finding  her,  went  to  look  in  the  same  spot  as  they 
had  previously,  and  there  they  found  her  lying  down,  and,  forcing 
her  to  get  up,  they  found  her  entirely  white.  The  fame  of  the  mir- 
acle being  spread  abroad  through  all  France,  people  came  in  great 
abundance  to  Nogent,  desiring  to  see  this  marvel,  and  many, 
affected  by  divers  maladies  and  languors,  returned  home  sound 
and  whole.  Henceforth  the  village  of  Nogent  was  christened  les 
Viei'ges.'" — Louvet,  "  Hist,  de  la  ville  Beajivais." 

Behind  the  church  is  a  desecrated  cemetery,  overgrown 
with  juniper.  The  gray  walls  and  arches  of  the  church, 
the  old  elm  in  front  clustered  with  misletoe,  the  wide 
porch  with  its  deep  shadows,  the  broken  tomb-stones,  and 
the  little  encircling  chapels,  are  well  adapted  for  a  picture. 

At  the  spot  called  La  Croix  des  Vierges,  a  XIV.  c.  col- 
umn marks  the  spot  where  the  oxen  stopped  which  drew 
the  chariot  of  Queen  Bathilde,  when  she  was  attracted 
to  Nogent,  in  645,  by  the  fame  of  the  miracle-working 
virgins. 

Passing  in  front  of  the  chateau  of  Villers  we  may  soon 
reach  the  Church  of  Villers  St,  Paul.  The  nave  and  its 
aisles  are  romanesque,  with  gothic  arches  resting  upon  its 
huge  columns  and  capitals.  The  choir  and  the  tower, 
flanked  by  four  tourelles  are  gothic.  The  porch,  in  the 
facade,  has  curious  sculptures. 


IX. 

CHANTILLY  AND    SEN  LIS. 

A  DELIGHTFUL  excursion  of  three  day^  from  Paris 
may  be  made  by  spending  the  first  between  Chan- 
tilly  and  Senlis,  and  sleeping  at  the  latter;  spending  the 
second  morning  at  the  Abbaye  de  la  Victoire,  proceeding 
by  rail  to  Pierrefonds,  via  Crepy-en-Valois,  and  sleeping  at 
Compiegne ;  on  the  third  day  seeing  Compiegne,  and  re- 
turning via  Creil. 

The  direct  line  from  Paris  to  Chantilly  branches  off 
from  the  main  line  at  St.  Denis.  There  is  no  beauty  till  it 
enters  the  forest  of  Chantilly.     It  passes — 

31^.  Survilliers,  where  the  chateau  was  bought  by 
Joseph  Bonaparte^  who  took  the  name  of  Comte  de  Sur- 
villiers when  he  went  to  America  after  the  fall  of  the  Em- 
pire. \k.  east,  near  Plailly,  is  Morfontaine — where  the 
treaty  of  peace  between  France  and  the  United  States  was 
signed — the  favorite  residence  of  Joseph  Bonaparte. 

"At  Morfontaine,  sailing  on  the  lakes,  reading,  billiards, 
literature,  ghost  stories,  more  or  less  well  told,  ease,  and  entire 
liberty,  formed  the  life  led  there.  Joseph  Bonaparte  was  torn 
from  his  peaceful  tastes  to  go  and  reign  over  the  Parthenope  of 
antiquity. 

"  '  Leave  me  King  of  Afoi-ffli2l<tiin\'  he  said  to  his  brother.  '  I 
am  much  more  happy  in  this  enclosure,  the  end  of  which  I  see,  it 
is  true,  but  where  I  can  diffuse  happiness  around  me.' 


CHAN  TILLY 


209 


"  His  wife,  Mme  Joseph  Bonaparte,  also  felt  the  same  regret 
at  quitting  her  quiet  habits,  but  Napoleon  had  spoken,  and  noth- 
ing remained  but  to  be  silent  and  obey." — Memoircs  de  la  Duchesse 
if  Ah'antes. 

After  Joseph  Bonaparte,  Morfontaine  was  possessed  by 
the  Due  de  Bourbon,  who  left  it  to  his  mistress,  Mme  de 
Feucheres. 

40/^.  Chantilly  (Hotels,  du  Cygne,  d^ Angleterre)  was 
the  Versailles  of  the  Princes  de  Conde.  The  famous  Con- 
stable Anne  de  Montmorency  inherited  Chantilly  through 
his  grandmother,  Marguerite  d'Orgemont.  He  built  the 
existing  chateau  in  the  style  of  the  Renaissance,  uniting  it 
to  the  feudal  castle,  which  had  existed  from  the  ninth  cent- 
ury. Henri  H.,  Due  de  Montmorency,  grandson  and  heir 
of  the  Constable,  was  beheaded  at  Toulouse  for  joining  in 
the  conspiracy  of  Gaston  d'Orleans  against  Richelieu.  His 
confiscated  domains  were  given  by  Louis  XHI.  to  his  sis- 
ter Charlotte,  who  married  Henry  H.,  Prince  de  Conde, 
and  was  the  mother  of  the  Grand  Conde,  of  Armand  de 
Bourbon,  Prince  de  Conti,  and  of  the  Duchesse  de  Longue- 
ville.^  The  magnificence  of  Chantilly  dates  from  the 
Grand  Conde,  under  whom  the  gardens  were  designed  by 
Lenotre,  and  the  waters  of  the  Nonette  and  the  Theve 
pressed  into  service  for  magnificent  cascades  and  foun- 
tains. The  most  celebrated  of  the  fetes  given  by  the 
Grand  Conde  at  Chantilly  was  that  to  Louis  XIV.,  in 
April,  167 1.  When  it  was  in  prospect  Mme  de  Sevigne 
wrote : 


^  The  House  of  Conde  descended  from  Louis  I.  de  Bourbon,  fifth  and  last 
son  of  Charles  de  Bourbon,  Due  de  Vendome,  young^er  brother  of  Antoine  de 
Bourbon,  King  of  Navarre.  He  was  first  cousin  of  Henri  IV.  By  his  first 
wife,  he  was  the  father  of  Henri,  Prince  de  Conde;  by  his  second  wife,  of 
Charles  de  Bourbon,  founder  of  the  branch  of  Soissons.  The  Princes  de  Conti 
descended  from  Armand  de  Bourbon,  son  of  Henri  H.  de  Conde,  and  younger 
brother  of  le  grand  Conde. 


210  DAYS  NEAR   PARIS 

"The  king  is  to  go  to  Chantilly  on  the  25th  of  this  month  ; 
he  will  be  there  a  whole  day.  Never  were  such  expenses  incurred 
at  the  triumphs  of  the  Emperors  as  will  be  there.  Nothing  is  too 
dear  ;  all  kinds  of  pretty  fancies  are  entertained  without  regard 
to  money.  It  is  believed  that  the  Prince  will  not  get  off  under 
40,000  crowns." 

It  was  at  this  fete  that  the  famous  cook  Vatel  killed 
himself  because  the  fish  was  late. 

"  Vatel,  the  great  Vatel,  maitre-d'hotel  of  M.  Fouquet,  who 
was  at  this  time,  that  of  the  Prince,  this  man  of  distinguished 
capacity,  above  all  the  others,  whose  good  head  was  capable  of 
holding  the  cares  of  a  state,  seeing  at  eight  o'clock  that  the  sea- 
fish  had  not  arrived,  could  not  endure  the  dishonor  which  he  saw 
about  to  crush  him,  and,  in  a  word,  stabbed  himself. 

"The  king  arrived  Thursday  evening:  the  promenade,  the 
collation  in  a  spot  carpeted  with  jonquils,  all  that,  was  perfec- 
tion. Then  supper ;  at  some  of  the  tables  there  was  no  roast, 
on  account  of  several  dinners  that  had  been  overlooked.  This 
hurt  Vatel  ;  he  said  several  times,  '  I  have  lost  my  honor,  this  is 
a  disgrace  I  shall  not  support.'  He  said  to  Gourville,  '  My  head 
is  turned  ;  for  twelve  nights  I  have  not  slept  ;  help  me  to  give 
orders.'  Gourville  consoled  him  as  well  as  he  could.  The  roast 
that  was  missing,  not  at  the  table  of  the  king,  but  at  that  of 
the  Vingt  Cinquihncs,  always  returned  to  his  mind.  Gourville 
told  the  Prince,  the  Prince  went  to  Vatel's  room,  and  said, 
'Vatel,  all  is  going  on  well  ;  nothing  was  so  fine  as  the  king's 
supper,'  He  replied,  '  Monseigneur,  your  goodness  oppresses 
me.  I  know  that  the  roast  was  wanting  at  two  tables.'  '  Not  at 
all,'  replied  the  Prince  ;  '  do  not  trouble  yourself,  all  goes  on  well.' 
Midnight  came ;  the  fireworks  were  not  a  success,  owing  to 
clouds  ;  they  cost  sixteen  thousand  francs.  At  four  in  the  morn- 
ing Vatel  went  through  the  place  and  found  everybody  asleep. 
He  met  a  petty  purveyor,  who  brought  only  two  loads  of  sea-fish. 
He  asks  him,  '  Is  this  all  ?'  '  Yes,  Monsieur.'  He  did  not  know 
that  Vatel  had  sent  to  all  the  seaports.  Vatel  waits  some  time  ; 
the  other  purveyors  do  not  arrive  ;  he  becomes  heated  ;  he  fancied 
that  there  would  be  no  more  sea-fish.  He  sought  out  Gourville, 
and  said,  'Monsieur,  I  shall  not  survive  this  disgrace.'  Gour- 
ville laughed  at  him.  Vatel  went  up  to  his  room,  placed  his 
sword  against  the  door,  and  passed  it  through  his  heart,  but  not 


CHANTILLY  211 

till  the  third  attempt,  for  he  had  given  himself  two  wounds  that 
were  not  mortal  ;  he  falls  dead.  The  fish  begins  to  arrive  from  all 
sides.  Vatel  is  looked  for  to  distribute  it ;  they  go  to  his  room, 
knock,  force  the  door,  and  find  him  bathed  in  his  blood  ;  they 
run  to  the  Prince,  who  is  in  despair.  The  Prince  told  it  to  the 
king  very  sadly.  They  said  it  was  because  he  had  a  sense  of 
honor  after  his  fashion,  praised  him  highly,  and  praised  and 
blamed  his  courage.  .  .  .  Meanwhile  Gourville  struggled  to  re- 
pair the  loss  of  Vatel.  It  was  repaired  ;  the  dinner  was  very 
good.  There  was  a  collation,  supper,  a  promenade,  gambling, 
and  hunting.  Everything  was  perfumed  with  jonquils,  every- 
body was  enchanted." — M))ie  de  Sevigne. 

The  Grand  Conde  spent  his  latter  years  in  a  literary 
seclusion  at  Chantilly.  He  died  in  1686,  and  the  last  work 
of  the  great  orator  Bossuet  was  his  funeral  oration. 

"The  Great  Conde  at  Chantilly  was  still,  as  if  at  the  head  of 
his  armies,  equally  great  in  action  and  repose.  He  entertained 
his  friends  in  those  superb  avenues,  to  the  sound  of  those  leaping 
waters,  that  were  silent  neither  night  nor  day." 

The  son  of  the  Grand  Conde — Henri  Jules  de  Bourbon, 
"  M.  le  Prince,"  of  whom  St.  Simon  gives  so  curious  an 
account,  "  qui  alloit  jusqu'a  peser  tout  ce  qui  sortait  de  son 
corps  " — was  a  terrible  domestic  tyrant,  his  Princess  was 
his  continual  victim,  and  Mile  de  Conde  died  of  his 
harsh  treatment. 

"  Chantilly  was  his  delight.  In  his  promenades  he  was  al- 
ways followed  by  several  secretaries  with  writing  cases  and  paper, 
who  wrote  down,  bit  by  bit,  whatever  came  into  his  mind  as  re- 
quiring to  be  repaired  or  embellished.  He  spent  there  prodigious 
sums,  but  mere  trifles  in  comparison  to  the  treasures  which  his 
grandson  buried  there  and  the  marvels  he  created. 

"  In  the  fifteen  or  twenty  last  years  of  his  life,  some  wander- 
ing of  mind  was  noticed.  ...  It  was  whispered,  that  at  times 
he  fancied  himself  a  dog,  at  others  some  other  animal,  whose 
ways  he  imitated." — St.  Sivwii. 

Louis  in.  (1668-17 10),  the  next  Prince  de  Conde', 
known    through   life   as    "  M.    le  Due,"   was   one   of  the 


212 


DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 


most  prominent  figures  at  Versailles  during  the  reign  of 
Louis  XIV. 

"He  was  a  man  considerably  smaller  than  the  smallest  men  ; 
without  being  fat,  he  was  thick  everywhere,  his  head  surprisingly 
big,  and  a  face  to  terrify  you.  It  was  said  that  a  dwarf  of  the 
Princess  was  the  cause  of  this.  He  was  of  a  livid  yellow,  a  look 
almost  always  of  rage,  but,  at  all  times  so  proud  and  overbear- 
ing, that  he  could  scarcely  be  endured.  He  had  wit,  was  well 
read,  retained  something  of  an  excellent  education,  politeness 
and  grace  when  he  liked,  but  he  seldom  did  like  ;  he  had  neither 
the  injustice,  the  avarice,  nor  the  baseness  of  his  fathers,  but  he 
had  all  their  powers,  and  displayed  application  and  intelligence 
to  the  art  of  war.  His  perversity  seemed  to  him  a  virtue,  and 
some  strange  vengeances,  which  he  took  more  than  once,  and 
which  a  private  individual  would  have  been  punished  for,  he 
deemed  an  appanage  of  his  greatness.  His  brutalit}^  was  extreme 
and  displayed  in  everything.  He  was  a  mill,  always  whirling  in 
the  air,  and  made  all  fly  before  it,  and  even  his  friends  were 
never  safe,  either  from  extreme  insults  or  cruel  pleasantries  to 
their  face." — St.  Simon. 

It  was  to  this  strange  personage  that  Louis  XIV.  had 
married  one  of  his  daughters  by  Mme  de  Montespan — 
Louise  Frangoise  de  Bourbon,  known  as  Mile  de  Nantes. 

"The  people  who  had  the  most  reason  to  fear  her,  were  en- 
chanted by  her,  and  those  who  had  most  cause  to  hate  her, 
had  to  keep  reminding  themselves  of  the  fact,  in  order  to  resist 
her  charms.  Never  the  least  ill-humor  at  any  time,  joyous,  gay, 
witty  with  the  finest  salt,  unshaken  by  surprises  or  misadvent- 
ures, free  in  her  most  restless  and  most  restrained  moments, 
she  had  passed  her  youth  in  frivolity  and  in  pleasures  which,  in 
every  style,  and  every  time  she  could  do  so,  led  to  debauchery. 
With  these  qualities,  much  wit,  ahead  for  intrigue  and  business, 
a  pliability  that  cost  nothing,  but  no  ability  for  far-reaching 
affairs,  contemptuous,  mocking,  pricking,  incapable  of  friend- 
ship and  ver}^  capable  of  hate,  and  then  she  was  mischievous, 
haughty,  and  implacable." — St.  Simon. 

The  eldest  of  their  nine  children  was  Louis  Henri,  "  M. 
le  Due,"  chief  of  the  council  of  regency  after  the  death  of 


CHAN  TILLY  2i^ 

Louis  XIV.,  and,  after  the  death  of  the  Duke  of  Orleans, 
hrst  minister  of  Louis  XV.  He  displayed  in  a  greater 
degree  the  rapacity  which  had  been  a  characteristic  of  his 
ancestors,  was  greatly  compromised  in  the  financial  opera- 
tions of  Law,  and  enormously  increased  his  hereditary 
fortune,  living  as  a  king  at  Chantilly,  and  receiving  Louis 
XV.  and  the  Duchesse  de  Berry  there  wdth  the  utmost 
magnificence.  In  1726  he  was  supplanted  as  first  minister 
by  Cardinal  Fleury,  who  caused  him  to  be  exiled  from  the 
Court.  He  spent  his  latter  years  entirely  at  Chantilly, 
devoted  to  natural  history,  and  died  there  in  1740. 

His  son,  Louis  Joseph  de  Bourbon,  Prince  de  Conde, 
was  distinguished  as  a  soldier. 


'&' 


"  The  field  of  battle  was  the  place  required  for  the  men  of 
this  house,  so  poor  and  mean  in  civil  life.  There  only  was  it 
given  them  to  show  what  they  were  worth.  It  is  reported  that 
an  officer,  requesting  this  Prince  of  Conde  to  retire  a  few  paces 
to  avoid  the  fire  of  a  battery,  '  I  do  not  find,'  he  replied,  '  any  of 
these  precautions  in  the  history  of  the  great  Conde.'  " — Le  Bas. 

This  prince  delighted  to  fill  Chantilly  with  BufTon, 
Marmontel,  D'Alembert,  Diderot,  and  other  clever  men  of 
the  time.  Originally  a  liberal  in  his  views,  he  became 
vehemently  conservative  with  the  Revolution,  and  was  the 
first  of  the  princes  to  emigrate.  On  the  banks  of  the 
Rhine  he  organized  the  emigrant  army  called  "  I'armee  de 
Conde."  Meanwiiile  the  old  chateau  of  Chantilly  was 
destroyed  by  the  Bande  Noire.  The  little  chateau  escaped, 
as  its  sale  was  not  completed  at  the  time  of  the  Restora- 
tion. The  Chateau  d'Enghien,  w'hich  had  been  built  by 
Louis  Joseph,  was  used  as  a  barrack.  Under  the  first 
empire  Chantilly  was  given  to  Queen  Hortense. 

Louis  Joseph  Henri,  the  next  owner  of  Chantilly,  who 
had  married  his  cousin,  Louise  d'Orle'ans,  was  the  father 


^j^  DAYS  NEAR  PARIS 

of  the  Due  d'Eoghien,  murdered  by  Napoleon  I.  He 
was  the  Due  de  Bourbon  found  hanged  to  the  window- 
bUnd  at  St.  Leu,  a  few  days  before  the  revolution  of  1830. 
He  left  the  Due  d'Aumale,  his  great-nephew,  his  heir,  with 
the  exception  of  two  millions,  several  chateaux,  &c.,  which 
he  bequeated  to  his  English  mistress,  Sophia  Dawes, 
called  Baronne  de  Feucheres. 

Opposite  the  station  of  Chantilly  is  the  entrance  to  a 
delightful  footpath  which  leads  through  a  wood  to  the 
idimons  Race-course,  where  the  races,  established  1832,  take 
place  every  spring  and  autumn.  On  the  third  day  of  the 
spring  races,  which  is  always  a  Sunday,  the  "  Prix  du 
Jockey-Club  "  is  contended  for.^  The  handsome  building 
beyond  the  race-course  will  be  taken  for  the  chateau,  but 
IS  the  magnificent  Stables,  built  (17 19-1735)  by  Louis 
Henri,  seventh  Prince  de  Conde'.  Behind  the  stables 
rises  the  Church,  of  1672,  where  a  monument,  with  an 
angel  guarding  a  bronze  door,  encloses  the  hearts  of  the 
House  of  Conde',  preserved,  till  the  Revolution,  in  the 
church  of  the  Jesuits  at  Paris.  A  stained  window  repre- 
sents the  death  of  St.  Louis.  Very  near  the  church  is  the 
Hotel  du  Cygne. 

Through  a  stately  gateway  at  the  angle  of  the  stables, 
we  re-enter  the  park,  and  descend  to  the  lake,  out  of  which 
the  Chateau  rises,  the  earlier  part  abruptly  from  the  water. 
The  stone  pavilion  at  the  gate,  the  old  pillars  and  terraces 
close  to  the  water,  the  feathery  trees,  the  talJ  gilt  spire  of 
the  chapel,  the  brilliant  flowers  on  the  flat  land  beyond 
the  lake,  and  the  groups  of  people  perpetually  feeding  the 
fish,  form  a  charming  picture. 


^  The  races  are  in  the  second  week  in  May ;  on  the  Sunday  towards  the  end 
of  September  which  precedes  the  Paris  races,  and  on  the  Sunday  in  October 
which  follows  the  Paris  races. 


CHAN  TILL  V 


S15 


An  equestrian  statue  of  the  Conne'table  Anne  de  Mont- 
morency, by  1^(7 u/  Dubois^  has  been  replaced  before  the 
arcade  of  the  Cour  d'Honneur.  Opposite  the  chateau  is 
the  Favillofi  d^Enghien,  which  the  last  Prince  de  Condc 
but  one  built  for  the  accommodation  of  his  suite.  The 
parterre  is  open  from  half-past  twelve  to  eight.  A  bridge 
leads  over  a  sunken  garden  to  wooded  glades,  where 
numbers  of  peacocks  strut  up  and  down.  The  name  of 
that  part  of  the  grounds  known  as  Fare  de  Sylvie  comes 
from  the  ''  Maison  de  Sylvie,"  a  dull  poem  in  honor  of 


CHANTILLV. 


the  Duchesse  de  Montmorency,  composed  here  by  Theo- 
phile  de  Viau,  condemned  to  be  burnt  alive  for  sacrilege, 
and  to  whom  the  Duke  (beheaded  1632)  had  given  an 
asylum. 

The  noble  domain  of  Chantilly  was  given  in  1886  as  a 
free  gift  to  the  France  to  which  his  life  and  heart  were 
devoted,  by  the  most  distinguished  and  public-spirited  of 
her  sons,  Henri  d' Orleans,  Due  d'Aumale,  immediately 
after  his  exile  by  the  republican  government.      The  art 


Si6  DAYS  NEAR   PARIS 

treasures  with  which  the  palace  is  filled  will  be  open  to 
the  public,  under  the  superintendence  of  officers  appointed 
by  the  Acade'mie  de  France,  and  will  form  the  most  touch- 
ing and  lasting  evidence  of  forbearance  and  forgiveness 
which  Europe  has  ever  seen. 

The  pictures  at  Chantilly  include  the  glorious  "Vierge 
de  la  Maison  d'Orleans  "  of  Raffaelle,  the  "  Venus  and 
Ganymede"  of  Raffaelle,  the  ''Battle  of  Rocroi"  of  Van 
der  Meulen,  some  of  the  best  works  of  Watteau  in  exist- 
ence^ the  "  Ecole  Turque"  and  "  Re'veil  "  oi  Decamps,  the 
"Deux  Foscari"  oi Delacroix,  and  the  "  Mort  du  Due  de 
Guise "  of  Delaroche.  There  is  a  glorious  collection  of 
portraits  of  the  house  of  Conde.  The  library  is  valued  at 
200.000/.,  and  for  a  single  chest  of  drawers,  which  be- 
longed to  Louis  XIV.,  20,000/.  was  refused  by  its  late 
owner.  In  the  splendid  XVI.  c.  glass  of  the  chapel  win- 
dows, the  children  of  the  Connetable  de  Montmorency 
are  represented. 

In  the  Forest  of  Cha?itilly  (i|-  hour,  following  the  Route 
du  Connetable,  ojDposite  the  chateau,  as  far  as  the  Carre- 
four  du  Petit  Convert,  and  thence  taking  the  third  alley  to 
the  left)  is  the  Chateau  de  la  Reine  Blanche,  or  de  la  Loge, 
a  building  erected  in  the  ancient  style  by  the  Due  de 
Bourbon,  on  the  supposed  site  of  a  little  chateau  built  in 
1227  by  Queen  Blanche,  mother  of  St.  Louis. 

The  neighboring  village  of  St.  Firmin  was  the  place 
where  the  Abbe  Prevost,  author  of  Manon  Lescaiit,  fell 
down  in  a  fit.  He  was  carried,  apparently  dead,  into  the 
house  of  the  cure,  and  the  authorities  ordered  the  body  to 
be  opened.  As  the  surgeon  plunged  his  knife  into  the 
body,  a  fearful  scream  showed  that  a  swoon  had  been  mis- 
taken for  death  ;  but  it  was  too  late  ! 

The  line  from  Chantilly  to  Crepy-en-Valois  passes — 


CATHEDRAL    OF  NOTRE   DAME  ^ly 

43  k.  (from  Paris)  Senlis  (Hotels,  du  Grand  Cerf- — 
good,  clean,  and  reasonable  ;  des  Arencs). 

The  picturesque  and  attractive  little  city  of  Senlis  is  a 
treasure-house  alike  to  the  antiquary  and  artist.  It  retains 
its  Gallo-Rotnan fortiJicatio)is  more  perfectly  than  any  town 
in  France,  except  Bourges  and  St.  Lizier,  and  its  walls  of 
cement,  faced  on  both  sides  with  cut  stone,  have  preserved 
sixteen  out  of  their  twenty-eight  ancient  towers.  The  site 
of  the  residence  of  the  Roman  governor  was  afterwards 
occupied  by  a  Chateau  of  the  Kings  of  France^  from  Clovis 
to  Henri  IV.,  of  which  interesting  ruins  remain  from  the 
XL,  XIII.,  and  XIV.  c.  The  ancient  gothic  entrance  to 
this  chateau  is  to  be  found  at  the  end  of  the  Rue  du  Cha- 
tel,  but  the  modern  approach  is  from  the  little  Place  St. 
Maurice.  The  towers  of  the  royal  chateau  are  well  seen 
from  the  Rue  de  Chat-Huret.  In  1863  some  small  re- 
mains of  a  Roman  Ajuphitheatre  were  discovered. 

The  Cathedral  of  Notre  Dame,  to  which  time  has  given 
coloring  of  exquisite  beauty,  is  a  noble  building  of  the 
XII.,  XIII. ,  and  XVI.  c.  The  plan  on  which  it  was  be- 
gun, in  1 155,  was  of  vast  size,  but  want  of  funds  compelled 
the  curtailment  of  the  length  which  it  was  intended  to  give 
to  the  nave,  and  the  suppression  of  the  triforium.  The 
church  was  consecrated  in  1191.  In  the  XIII.  c,  one  of 
the  west  steeples  was  completed,  leaving  the  other  unfin- 
ished, chapels  were  added  on  the  right  of  the  choir,  and  a 
transept  was  begun.  The  chapels  of  the  nave  and  some 
of  those  of  the  choir  date  from  the  XIV.  c.  and  XV.  c. 
In  1502  the  cathedral  was  struck  by  lightning,  and  it  be- 
came necessary  to  renew  the  whole  of  the  vaulting  and  the 
upper  windows.  The  transept  was  finished  and  the  fa9ade 
restored  at  the  same  time.  The  central  portal  of  the  fa- 
cade, formerly  divided  by  a  central  pillar,  has  the  Burial 


2l8 


DA  VS  NEAR  PARIS 


and  Coronation  of  the  Virgin  in  its  tympanum,  one  of  the 
earliest  and  best  representations  of  this  subject.  The 
transept  portals  bear  the  salamander  of  Francois  I.  :  they 
are  surrounded  by  a  loggia  under  the  principal  windows. 

"Each  of  the  gables  of  these  porches  is  surmounted  by  fig- 
ures ;  on  the  south  porch  the  Trinity  is  represented  under  the 


v^-. 


PORTAL,    SEKLIS. 


figure  of  an  Eternal  Father  seated  and  holding  the  cross  on  which 
Jesus  Christ  is  extended  ;  a  dove  takes  the  place  of  his  beard,  and 
seems  to  designate  the  Holy  Ghost.  The  statue,  in  the  country, 
bears  the  name  of  God  the  Father.  On  the  north  porch  is  also  an 
allegorical  figure,  named  God  the  Son  ;  it  represents  a  man  with 
hands  raised  to  heaven,  in  the  attitude  assumed  b)'^  the  early 
Christians  for  prayer." — Dulaure,  ''Environs  de  Paris,'' 


SENLIS  gt^ 

The  steeple  on  the  right  of  the  fa^\icle  is  one  of  the 
marvels  of  the  XIII.  c. 

"  One  of  the  rare  complete  bell  towers  c:  the  beginning  of 
the  XIII.  century,  is  the  one  that  flanks  the  fafade  of  the  cathe- 
dral of  Senlis,  on  the  south  side.  Built,  without  change  or  break 
of  plan,  during  the  early  years  of  the  XIII.  century,  in  materials 
of  excellent  quality,  this  tower  shows  already  the  tendencies  of 
the  architects  of  the  XIII.  century  to  seek  for  surprising  effects. 
Rising  on  a  square  base  almost  filled  in,  but  under  which  there 
opens  a  charming  door  to  the  south  aisle  of  the  cathedral,  this 
lateral  belfry,  contrary  to  the  practice  of  previous  architects,  is 
no  longer  an  isolated  monument,  but  intimately  connected  with 
the  plan  of  the  church  ;  its  ground  floor  serves  as  a  vestibule  to 
>ne  of  the  side  vaults.  .  .  .  Great  pinnacles  of  open  work,  rest- 
ing on  the  angles  of  the  square,  serve  for  a  transition  between 
the  square  base  and  the  octagonal  stor)\  The  upper  spire,  with 
eight  sides,  like  the  tower  that  supports  it,  bear  on  each  face  a 
large  light,  the  opening  of  which  gives  passage  to  the  sound  of 
the  bells." —  Viollct-le-Diu. 

In  the  interior,  the  pillars,  side-aisles,  and  tribunes  of 
the  nave  and  choir  belong  to  the  construction  of  the  XII.  c. 
The  nave  has  five  bays,  of  which  the  first  is  a  vestibule 
under  the  towers,  and  the  last  opens  upon  the  transepts. 
In  a  chapel  on  the  left,  the  keystone  of  the  vaulting  repre- 
sents a  large  crown,  with  four  angels  extending  their  wings 
towards  it.  The  rectangular  part  of  the  choir  has  six 
bays,  of  which  the  first  is  common  to  the  transepts.  The 
chapels  are  XIII.  c.  and  XIV.  c.  The  ambulatory  of  the 
apse  is  encircled  by  five  chapels,  of  which  four  are  XII.  c. 
The  final  chapel  is  modern.  In  the  chapel  of  St.  Rieul 
are  some  fine  incised  monuments  of  bishops,  their  crosiers 
inlaid  in  white  marble.  In  the  wall  of  the  left  aisle  is  a 
XVII.  c.  relief  of  the  Entombment. 

The  Evkhe,  to  the  south-east  of  the  cathedral,  dates 
from  XII.  c,  but  has  lost  all  its  characteristics. 


220  DAYS  NEAR   PARIS 

Near  the  cathedral  is  the  desecrated  collegiate  Church 
of  St.  Frambourg,^  rebuilt  in  1177,  of  striking  and  simple 
proportions;,  without  aisles  or  transepts.  In  this  part  of 
the  town  are  several  curious  old  houses  with  tourelles,  and 
other  desecrated  churches,  one  of  them,  St.  Aig?ia?i  (XIV.  c. 
and  XVI.  c),  turned  into  a  theatre.  Another  collegiate 
church,  St.  Rieul.,  is  greatly  dilapidated. 

The  fine  Church  of  St.  Pierre  is  now  enclosed  in  a 
cavalry  barrack.  It  is  of  the  richest  XVI.  c.  flamboyant, 
and  has  two  towers,  one  crowned  by  a  beautiful  spire  of 

1431- 

Approached  by  an  avenue  from  the  lower  part  of  the 
town  is  the  ancient  Abbey  of  St.  Fmcent,  founded  by  Queen 
Anne  of  Russia  in  1065,  now  modernized,  and  occupied 
by  an  ecclesiastical  college.  The  monastic  church  still 
exists,  with  its  vaulting  of  1130,  and  its  graceful  early 
pointed  (XII.  c.)  tower  and  low  steeple. 

The  Hotel  de  Ville  was  rebuilt  in  1495.  Of  the  fine  old 
houses,  we  may  especially  notice  No.  53  Vieille  Rue  de 
Paris,  with  a  XVI.  c.  polygonal  tower,  and  No.  20  Rue 
du  Chatel,  with  a  curious  gothic  portal  and  vaulted 
halls. 

We  must  take  the  Rue  Bellon  (first  on  left  in  descend- 
ing the  Grande  Rue)  and  proceed  in  a  direct  line  till  we 
reach  a  crucifix,  then  follow  a  stony  road  (right)  to  a 
watermill,  opposite  which  take  a  paved  lane  to  reach 
(right),  in  the  gardens  of  a  chateau,  the  beautiful  ruins  of 
the  Abbaye  de  la  Victoire,  founded  by  Philippe  Auguste  in 
honor  of  the  victory  of  Bouvines.  The  architect  was  a 
monk  named  Menand.  Louis  XI.  often  used  to  stay  at 
this  abbey,  and  built  a  chateau  close  by  (which  was  pulled 

^  To  visit  the  interior  apply  at  No.  6  Rue  St.  Frambourg. 


ABBA  YE   BE   LA    VIC  TO  IRE 


221 


down  by  the  monks  in  1599),  where  he  signed  a  treaty  of 
peace  with  Francois  II.  of  Brittany.  In  1783  the  abbey 
was  suppressed,  and  the  greater  part  of  its  buildings  were 
pulled  down.  The  existing  remains  are  those  of  three 
bays  of  the  south  aisle  of  the  choir,  which  had  been  re- 
stored 1472 -15 19. 

Very  near  the  Abbaye  de  la  Victoire,  3 1 /('.  from  Senlis, 
is  the  ancient   Chateau  of  Mont  FEveque^  which  was  the 


ABBAYE    DE    LA   VICTOIRE. 


summer  residence  of  the  bishops  of  Senlis.  ^\k.  further 
(twenty  minutes'  walk  from  the  station  of  Barbery,  on  the 
line  from  Senlis  to  Crepy-en-Valois)  is  the  ruined  castle 
of  Montepilloy  (Mons  Speculatorum),  built  in  the  XII.  c, 
partly  rebuilt  by  Louis  d'Orleans  in  1400,  and  dismantled 
at  the  end  of  the  XVI.  c. 

Ermenonville  (13  >^'.)  may  be  visited  from  Senlis.     See 
Chap.  XL 


222  DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 

The  excursion  to  Chantilly  and  Senlis  may  be  com- 
bined with  that  to  Pierrefonds  and  Compiegne,  by  taking 
the  railway  to  the  former,  changing  at  Crepy-en-Valois. 
The  line  passes — 

60  k.  (from  Paris)  Barbery  (the  nearest  station  to  Mont- 
epilloy).  The  church  was  consecrated  in  1586  by  Guil- 
laume  Rose,  Bishop  of  Senlis,  famous  in  the  League. 
Near  this  is  the  chateau  of  Chamant,  which  belonged  to 
Lucien  Bonaparte.  There  is  a  monument  to  his  first  wife, 
Ele'onore  Boyer. 

"  Madame  Lucien  was  interred  in  the  park  of  her  property  at 
Plessis  Chamant.  Her  husband  built  over  her  a  monument  of 
white  marble  surrounded  by  a  railing.  When  he  went  to  Plessis 
he  took  his  daughters  with  him,  that,  young  as  they  were,  they 
might  pray  with  him." — Memoires  de  la  Duchesse  d' Abranth. 

69^.  Auger-St.  Vincent.  The  church  is  XII.,  XIIL, 
and  XVI.  c.  with  some  windows  of  1534.  2  >^.  east  is  the 
farm  of  Parc-aux-Da7ncs,  once  a  monastery :  the  XV.  c. 
chapel  remains. 

76/^.  Crepy-efi'Valois  (Hotel,  de  la  Ba?i?iiere\  The 
former  capital  of  the  duchy  of  Valois  has  some  remains  of 
a  chteau  founded  in  the  XI.  c.  The  parish  church  of  St. 
Denis  dates  from  the  same  time,  but  the  facade  is  XII.  c, 
the  choir  XV.  c.  The  collegiate  church  of  St.  Thomas 
was  begun  (1180)  by  Philippe  d' Alsace,  Comte  de  Flandre. 
The  facade  is  XIII.  c;  the  tower,  with  a  stone  spire, 
XIV.  c. 

"The  building  was  in  course  of  erection  when  the  famous 
Thomas  a  Becket,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  passed  through  the 
town  of  Crepy.  As  the  count  showed  to  him  with  pride  the  im- 
mense buildings  of  the  church,  'To  what  saint  will  it  be  conse- 
crated?' asked  the  archbishop.  'To  the  first  martyr,'  replied  the 
count,  who  intended  to  dedicate  to  St.  Stephen.  '  Do  you  speak,' 
said  the  prelate,  '  of   the    first  of   past    martyrs    or  the    first    of 


ST.    THOMAS 


223 


future  marl/rs  ? '  After  the  death  of  Thomas  the  count  remem- 
bered these  prophetic  words,  and  placed  the  church  under  the 
invocation  of  the  new  martyr." — Dulaure,  ^'^  Environs  de  Fa/is." 

The  town  contains  many  houses  of  the  XV.  c.  and 
XVI.  c.  and  one  of  the  XIV.  c. 


X. 

COMPIEGNE  AND   PIERREFONDS 

FROM  the  Gare  du  Nord.  Compiegne  and  Pierre- 
fonds  may  well  form  part  of  a  three-days'  excursion, 
embracing  Chantilly  and  Senlis  (see  Chap.  IX.),  but  they 
may  easily  be  visited  in  the  day  from  Paris.  The  line  as 
far  as  Creil  is  described  in  Chap.  VII.  and  Chap.  VIII. 

At  Creil  the  line  to  Brussels  and  Compiegne  diverges 
north-east  by  the  right  bank  of  the  Oise,  passing — 

62  k.  (from  Paris)  Po7it-St.  Maxence,  which  takes  its 
name  from  an  Irish  martyr  of  the  V.  c.  The  church  is 
XV.  c.  and  XVII.  c.  A  XIV.  c.  facade  remains  of  the 
palace  called  Yraifte,  which  belonged  to  the  dukes  of  Bur- 
gundy. The  Hotel  de  Ville  or  Maisofi  du  Roi,  in  the  Rue 
de  Caville',  is  XV.  c.  In  the  Rue  de  la  Ville  is  a  XV.  c. 
tower.  The  line  passes,  on  the  left,  near  Houdancourt, 
the  ancient  farm  of  Lamotte,  of  the  Comtes  de  Lamotte- 
Houdancourt,  and  the  ruined  castle  of  Longueil-St.  Marie. 
The  forest  of  Halatte  lies  between  the  line  and  Senlis. 

72  >^.  Verberie,  where  Clotaire  and  Chilperic  had  a 
residence,  in  which  Charles  Martel  died,  and  where  Pepin 
summoned  a  general  council  in  752.  Charlemagne  rebuilt 
the  palace,  in  which  several  councils  were  afterwards  held, 
and  where  Charles  le  Chauve  celebrated  the  marriage  of 
his   daughter  Judith  with   Ethelwulf,  king  of   England. 


COMPIEGNE  225 

The  palace,  restored  by  Charles  V.,  existed  till  the  XV.  c, 
when  it  was  pulled  down  for  building  materials. 

Verberie  was  amongst  the  fortresses  whose  demolition 
was  ordered  by  Charles  VI L  in  1431;  but  Francois  I. 
again  surrounded  it  with  walls,  and  its  five  gates  were  en- 
tire in  the  XVIII.  c.  The  church  is  XII.,  XIII.,  and  XV.  c. 
At  the  south  extremity  of  the  town  is  Le  Petit  Ceppy — 
a  house  of  XIII.  c.  or  XIV.  .c.  \k.  south-east  is  the 
church  of  St.  Waast-de-Longmont,  with  a  fine  romanesque 
portal  and  apse,  and  a  tower  with  a  stone  steeple  of  XII.  c. 
The  line  passes  on  the  left  the  church  of  Rivecourt, 
which  has  a  curious  portal.  The  interior  was  painted  in 
fresco  in  the  XVI.  c. 

84^.  Compiegne  (Hotels,  de  la  Cloche^  very  good;  de 
France;  du  Soleil  d^  Or),  The  Latin  name  of  Compiegne 
was  Compendium.  The  first  Merovingian  kings  had  a 
palace  here,  and,  ever  since,  the  town  has  been  a  resort  of 
royalty.  Pepin  le  Bref  received  here,  as  a  present  from 
Constantine  Copronymus,  the  first  organ  which  had  been 
seen  in  France.  Louis  le  Begue,  son  of  Charles  le  Chauve, 
was  crowned  here  in  877,  and  died  here  two  years  after. 
It  was  here  that  Eudes,  Comte  de  Paris,  was  elected  king 
of  France  in  888.  It  was  in  the  forest  of  Compiegne  that 
Philippe- Auguste  lost  his  way  whilst  hunting,  in  his  four- 
teenth year,  and  was  brought  back  to  the  palace  by  a 
charcoal-burner,  an  adventure  of  which  he  so  nearly  died 
of  fright,  that  his  father,  Louis  VII.,  had  to  cross  over 
into  England  to  pray  for  his  recovery  at  the  shrine  of  St. 
Thomas  of  Canterbury.  Under  the  reign  of  St.  Louis, 
2,000  barons  assembled  at  Compiegne  for  the  marriage  of 
the  king's  brother,  Robert.  It  was  here  that,  after  the 
disasters  which  followed  the  battle  of  Poitiers,  Charles  V., 
in  1358,   reunited   the   States-General,   and  provoked    a 


226  ^^4  YS  NEAR   PARIS 

monarchical  and  feudal  reaction  against  the  rebellion  of 
Paris,  which  was  making  its  first  attempt  at  representative 
government. 

In  the  troublous  times  of  Charles  VII.  Compiegne  was 
frequently  taken  and  retaken  by  the  conflicting  armies,  but 
only  one  attack  of  the  English  is  especially  remembered, 
for  on  that  day,  so  fatal  for  the  honor  of  France  and 
England,  Jeanne  Dare  was  taken  prisoner. 

"Jeanne  returned  to  Compiegne;  her  heart  was  with  this 
town  and  its  people  si  bounne  fran^oise,  but  tire  inner  voice  still 
spoke  to  her  sadly.  Nearly  every  day  the  prophecy  of  her 
approaching  capture  was  renewed.  According  to  a  tradition 
preserved  at  Compiegne,  'The  maid,  one  early  morning,  had 
mass  said  at  St.  Jacques  and  confessed  and  received  her  Creator, 
and  then  retired  near  one  of  the  pillars  of  the  said  church,  and 
said  to  many  folk  of  the  town  who  were  there  (and  there  was 
there  a  hundred  or  six  score  of  children  that  much  desired  to  see 
her):  "My  children  and  dear  friends,  I  say  to  you  that  I  am 
sold  and  betrayed,  and  that,  in  brief  time,  I  shall  be  delivered  to 
death.  So  I  beg  you  to  pray  God  for  me,  for  never  shall  I  again 
have  power  to  do  service  to  the  king  or  realm  of  France.'" 

"Jeanne  did  down  to  the  last  moment  all  that  she  could  do 
in  the  conviction  of  victory.  She  went  to  seek  for  succor, 
gathered  at  Crespi  three  or  four  hundred  picked  men,  and  hastened 
to  bring  them  to  her  'good  friends  of  Compiegne.'  She  re- 
entered the  town  at  sunrise.  May  23,  by  the  forest,  which  is  still 
called  the  forest  of  Cuise.  A  sally  was  prepared  by  agreement 
between  her  and  the  governor,  Guillaume  de  Flavi. 

"  Once  in  action,  the  warlike  ardor,  the  fever  of  heroes,  seized 
her  and  banished  her  sombre  presentiments.  That  day  she  had 
no  private  warning,  no  dark  presage. 

"About  five  in  the  evening,  Jeanne  sallied  from  Compiegne 
at  the  head  of  five  hundred  picked  men,  partly  horse,  partly  on 
foot,  and  attacked  Marqui.  The  garrison  of  Marqui  came  out 
to  meet  her,  but  was  driven  back  and  hurled  into  the  village, 
where  Jeanne  followed  them.  The  Burgundians  rallied.  They 
soon  became  superior  in  number,  but  the  dash  of  the  assailants 
was  such  that  they  repulsed,  in  a  second  and  third  charge,  this 
always  increasing  multitude, 


COMPIEGNE 


227 


"  Five  hundred  English,  however,  were  coming  from  the 
opposite  side,  from  Venette.  The  companions  of  Jeanne  saw 
them  at  a  distance  on  their  rear.  They  forgot  that  the  English 
could  not  place  themselves  between  them  and  the  town  without 
being  shot  down  by  the  artillery  of  the  fortifications.  They 
thought  they  were  cut  off.  The  rear  ranks  disbanded.  The 
fugitives  rushed  to  the  barrier  of  the  fortification  and  masked  the 
English,  who,  already  sheltered  from  the  fire  of  the  place,  charged 
them  boldly  and  gained  the  road. 

"The  bravest  and  most  devoted  of  Jeanne's  companions, 
who  had  never  quitted  her  since  her  parting  from  the  king,  one 
of  her  brothers,  her  squire,  Jean  d'Aulon,  and  others  still  fought 
around  her.  When  they  saw  what  was  passing  behind  them, 
'Endeavor  to  reach  the  city,'  they  cried  to  her.  '  or  you  and  we 
are  lost  ! ' 

"  But  Jeanne  was  transported  with  that  heroic  ecstasy  which 
danger  inspired  her  with.  '  Silence  ! '  she  cried.  '  It  depends 
on  you  whether  they  are  discomfited.  Think  only  of  smiting 
them.' 

"For  all  that  she  could  say  her  people  would  not  believe 
it  ;  they  took  the  bridle  of  her  horse  and  made  her  by  force  return 
to  the  town. 

"  It  was  too  late.  The  streams  of  Burgundian  and  Picard 
horsemen  were  pursuing,  head  to  tail  ;  behind  them,  between 
them  and  the  place,  other  Burgundians,  mixed  with  English, 
were  thrusting  their  swords  into  the  first  fugitives,  and  already 
attacking  the  barrier.  The  barrier  had  been  closed  and  the  draw- 
bridge raised.  The  governor  of  Compiegne  was  afraid  of  seeing 
the  rampart  and  the  bridge  over  the  Oise  seized  by  the  enemy. 
There  remained  some  boats  filled  with  archers  ;  the  most  of  the 
foot  soldiers  of  Jeanne's  troop  had  already  found  refuge  there, 
but  Jeanne,  who  did  not  retire  except  step  by  step,  fighting  all 
the  time,  and  who  was  resolved  to  enter  last,  could  not  gain  the 
banks  of  the  Oise.  She  was  driven,  with  her  friends,  into  the 
angle  formed  by  the  rampart  and  the  slope  of  the  road. 

"All  the  enemy  rushed  upon  her  at  once.  The  banner,  con- 
secrated far  otherwise  than  the  orifiamme,  that  had  been  the  sal- 
vation of  France,  the  banner  of  Orleans,  of  Patay  and  of  Reims, 
was  in  vain  waved  to  summon  assistance.  The  faithful  army  of 
Jeanne  was  no  longer  there.  The  holy  standard  fell,  overthrown 
by  French  hands.  The  last  defenders  of  the  maid  were  dead, 
captive   or   separated    from    her   by   the    throng    of    assailants. 


2  28  DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 

Jeanne  still  struggled.  Five  or  six  horsemen  surrounded  her, 
and,  all  at  once,  laid  hands  upon  her  and  her  horse.  Each  of 
them  cried,  '  Surrender  to  me  !  Pledge  3'our  word  ! '  'I  have 
sworn,'  she  replied,  '  and  pledged  my  word  to  another  than  you  ; 
I  will  keep  my  oath  to  him.' 

"  An  archer  pulled  her  violently  '  by  her  casaque  of  cloth  of 
gold.'     She  fell  from  her  horse. 

"  The  archer  and  his  master,  the  Bastard  of  Wandomme,  a 
man-at-arms  from  Artois,  in  the  service  of  Jean  of  Luxembourg, 
seized  her.     She  was  taken  prisoner  to  Margny. 

"  The  prediction  of  her  voices  was  fulfilled.  The  period  of  the 
struggle  was  ended  for  her.  The  period  of  martyrdom  com- 
menced."— Martin,  "Hist,  de  France.'' 

The  Porte  du  Vieux-Pont,  near  which  Jeanne  Dare 
was  taken,  long  bore  the  inscription — 

"  Cy  fuct  Jehanne  d'Ark  pres  de  cestui  passage 
Par  le  nombre  accablee  et  vendue  a  I'Anglais, 
Quibrula,  le  felon,  elle  tant  brave  et  sage. 
Tous  ceux-]a  d'Albion  n'ont  faict  le  bien  jamais." 

All  the  later  kings  of  France  have  from  time  to  time 
inhabited  Compiegne,  which  was  the  favorite  residence  of 
the  Emperor  Napoleon  III.,  and  the  scene  of  his  chief 
hospitalities. 

The  town  is  prettily  situated  on  the  Oise,  and  its 
streets  are  clean  and  handsome.  In  a  central  position  is 
the  picturesque  Hotel  de  Ville  of  1502-15 10.  The  figures 
of  the  Annunciation,  which  once  decorated  it,  have  been 
replaced  by  an  equestrian  statue  of  Louis  XII.,  by  Jacque- 
mart.  In  the  interior  is  a  Micsee,  with  the  ordinary  collec- 
tion of  second-rate  pictures.  The  very  fine  church  of  St. 
Antoine  dates  from  the  XII.  c,  but  retains  little  of  that 
time.  The  rest  is  chiefly  rich  XVI.  c.  gothic,  but  the  very 
lofty  choir  and  chevet  are  due  to  Pierre  Dailly,  XIV.  c. 
The  tracery  of  its  parapets  is  very  rich.  A  curious  XI.  c. 
font  was  brought  from  St.  Corneille,  and  a  stained  window 
from  the  church  of  Gilocourt.     The  church  of  St,  Jacques^ 


COMPIEGNE 


229 


so  touch) ngly  connected  with  the  story  of  Jeanne  Dare, 
was  founded  at  the  beginnuig  of  the  XI II.  c,  but  not 
finished  till  the  XV.  c.  It  was  intended  to  have  two 
towers,  but  only  one  was  completed,  and  the  portal  which 
was  to  have  connected  them  is  also  unfinished.  The  in- 
ternal ornamentation  is  of  XVIII.  c.  On  the  neigh- 
boring Place  du  Change  is  a  house  where  Henri  IV.  often 
stayed  with  his  mistress,  the  Duchesse  de  Beaufort,  to 
whom  it  belonged.  The  CJmrch  of  St  Nicholas,  attached 
to  the  Hotel  Dieu,  contains  a  curious  renaissance  wooden 
altar-piece.  In  St.  Ger7nain  is  a  beautiful  banc-d  ^ osuvre 
of  1587,  which  came  from  St.  Jacques. 

The  Chateau  de  Compiegtie  is  the  fourth  royal  residence 
which  has  existed  here.  The  first  was  that  of  Clovis  and 
Charlemagne  ;  the  second  was  built  by  Charles  le  Chauve 
on  the  banks  of  the  Oise ;  the  third,  on  the  present  site, 
was  that  of  Charles  V. ;  the  existing  chateau  was  built  by 
Gabriel  for  Louis  XV.  The  architectural  effect  of  the 
principal  part  recalls  that  of  the  Palais  Royal  at  Paris,  on 
the  side  towards  the  Louvre.  It  is  approached  through  a 
grille  from  the  great  square. 

The  chateau  is  open  to  foreigners  daily  from  10  to  i ; 
the  public  are  freely  admitted  on  Tuesdays,  Thursdays, 
Saturdays,  and  Sundays  at  the  same  hours.  On  the  ground 
floor  is  installed  the  Musee  Khmer,  of  early  Indian  and 
Chinese  monuments.  The  apartments,  chiefly  interesting 
from  their  association  with  Napoleon  I.  and  III.,  are  hand- 
some, but  have  no  especial  importance.  The  Galerie  des 
Fetes  has  decorations  in  the  style  of  the  first  empire,  by 
Girodet,  and  statues  of  Napoleon  I.  and  Madame  Mere, 
by  Canova.  There  is  a  large  collection  of  indifferent  pict- 
ures ;  those  of  the  story  of  Don  Quixote,  by  Charles  CoypeL 
are  amusing. 


230 


DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 


The  Gardens  cannot  be  entered  through  the  palace. 
Emergiug  from  the  Cour  cl'honneur,  one  must  turn  to  the 
left,  where  an  open  gate  will  soon  be  found  on  the  left  of  the 
avenue.  These  unkempt  gardens  have  a  much  greater  look 
of  the  country  than  those  of  Versailles,  and  a  long  grass 
avenue,  made  by  Napoleon  I.  in  1810,  stretches  away  from 
them  through  the  forest.  The  terrace  is  very  handsome, 
lined  with  orange  and  palm-trees  in  tubs.  The  great  N  of 
Napoleon  is  often  repeated  on  the  facade  of  the  palace  on 


CHATEAU   DE   COMPlfeCNE. 

this  side.  At  the  end  of  the  terrace,  on  the  left,  passing  a 
grille,  we  find  ourselves  above  the  Forte  C/iapelle,  built  by 
Philibert  Delorme  for  Henri  II.,  with  a  vaulted  gallery 
under  the  terrace.  It  bears  the  monograms  of  Henri  II. 
and  Diane  de  Poitiers.  Hence,  an  avenue  leads  to  the 
Coitrs,  along  the  river.  Here  we  may  see  the  moat  of 
Charles  V.  and  remains  of  the  towers  which  defended  it. 
Returning  to  the  middle  of  the  fagade,  and  taking  the  stair- 
case which  descends  to  the  park,  we  find  to  the  left  the 


ABBEY  OF   ST.    CORNEILLE 


231 


berceaii,  1,800  met.  long,  which  Napoleon  I.  made  to  please 
Marie  Louise,  in  imitation  of  that  of  Schoenbrunn. 

The  Fo?'est  of  Covipiegiie  (called,  till  1346,  la  foret  de 
Cuise)  was  a  favorite  hunting-ground  with  the  kings  of 
France.  Here  a  wild  man,  "vetu  comme  un  loup,"  was 
seized  in  the  time  of  Charles  IX.  and  brought  to  the  king, 
and  here  Henri  IV.  narrowly  escaped  being  carried  off  by 
Rieux,  governor  of  Pierrefonds.  An  avenue,  facing  the 
chateau,  leads  to  the  heights  called  Beaux-Mojits,  from 
which  and  from  the  neighboring  hill  called  Mont  die 
Tremble,  there  are  good  points  of  view.  A  more  distant 
point  for  an  excursion  is  the  Mont  St.  Marc.  This  may  be 
combined  with  a  visit  to  the  royal  Abbey  of  St.  Corneille,  at 
the  foot  of  the  Beaux  Monts.  In  this  abbey,  founded  by 
Charles  le  Chauve  in  876,  Henri  III.  was  buried,  in  accord- 
ance with  his  own  desire,  but  was  moved  to  St.  Denis  by 
the  Due  d'Epernon.  The  abbey  was  totally  destroyed  at 
the  Revolution.  A  road  now  traverses  the  nave  of  the 
church.  Only  part  of  the  cloister  remains,  and  is  used  as 
a  barrack. 

"All  the  world  knows  the  story  of  Grand-Ferre  (1358).  which 
the  collectors  of  anecdotes  have  extracted  from  the  interesting 
chronicle  of  the  continuator  of  Nangis.  The  inhabitants  of  the 
village  of  Saint  Corneille  and  the  neighboring  villages  \vere  en- 
trenched in  a  little  fort,  near  the  Abbey  of  Saint  Corneille,  under 
the  command  of  a  farmer  named  Guillaume  I'Alouette,  a  resolute 
fellow,  much  beloved  in  the  country.  Guillaume  had  with  him 
his  farm  servant,  who  was  called  '  Grand-Ferre,'  a  kind  of  giant, 
of  prodigious  stature  and  strength  ;  for  the  rest  humble  in  heart 
and  simple  in  mind.  The  adventurers  of  the  garrison  of  Creil 
sent  a  detachment  to  take  the  fort  of  Saint  Corneille  ;  the  bandits 
surprised  it,  and  began  by  massacring  I'Alouette.  At  this  sight, 
Grand-Ferre  takes  a  heavy  axe,  and,  followed  by  the  most  daring 
of  the  peasants,  thngs  himself  on  the  English.  At  each  blow 
he  cut  off  an  arm  or  split  a  head,  and  his  comrades,  imitating  to 
the  best  they  could,  rained  blows  on  the  English  as  if  they  had 


232  DAYS  NEAR  PARIS 

been  threshing  tlicir  corn  on  tlie  floor.  Grand-Ferre  knocked 
down  over  forty  himself;  tlie  others  ran  away.  The  peasants 
were  so  emboldened  by  their  victory,  that,  a  second  detachment 
having  come  to  avenge  the  first,  the}^  sallied  out  to  meet  the 
enemy  in  the  open  field.  The  English  were  treated  as  their  pred- 
ecessors had  been.  The  peasants  refused  to  admit  to  ransom, 
and  slew  all  they  could  catch,  '  to  put  them  out  of  the  way  of 
doing  harm.' 

"  Grand-Ferre,  however,  had  been  heated  in  this  second  fight ; 
he  drank  a  good  deal  of  cold  water  and  was  seized  with  fever  ;  he 
returned  to  the  village  and  took  to  his  bed.  The  men  of  Creil 
soon  heard  of  his  sickness  and  sent  a  dozen  soldiers  to  kill  him  ; 
but  Grand-Ferre,  warned  by  his  wife,  had  time  to  grasp  his  good 
axe  and  to  go  out  into  the  yard.  'Ah,  robbers,'  he  cried  to  the 
English,  'you  think  to  catch  me  abed,  but  you  have  not  got  me 
yet !'  He  put  his  back  to  the  wall,  raised  his  axe  five  times,  and 
struck  five  English  dead  on  the  spot ;  the  seven  others  ran  as  hard 
as  they  could.  He  returned  to  his  bed  and  drank  some  more  cold 
water  ;  the  fever  redoubled  ;  he  received  the  sacraments  and  died, 
wept  by  all  the  peasants.  His  exploits  have  made  him  a  popular 
hero." — Henri  Mar tui,  ''Hist,  de  France." 

A  direct  road  leads  from  St.  Corneille  to  St.  Pierre 
(8  k.  from  Compiegne),  with  ruins  of  a  priory  founded  by 
Charles  le  Chauve  for  Benedictines,  replaced  by  Celestines 
in  1308.  Below  the  ruins  is  La  Fo7itai?ie  des  Miracles., 
supposed  to  remove  barrenness. 

From  Compiegne  most  visitors  will  take  the  railway 
line  to  Villers-Cotterets,  though  there  is  a  good  road  of 
\2k.  (omnibus)  to — 

96  k.  Pierrefonds  (Hotels,  des  Bains,  prettily  situated  ; 
des  Ruines,  good,  less  pretentious ;  du  Chateau ;  des 
Etrangers).  One  may  dine  at  the  Restaurant  du  Lac, 
which  has  a  lovely  view  of  the  lake  and  the  opposite  hill, 
with  every  variety  of  forest  green,  and  pink  houses  emerg- 
i-ig  from  it.  Pierrefonds  is  much  frequented  for  its 
mineral  waters,  useful  for  rheumatism  and  throat  affec- 
tions \  but  of  world-wide  celebrity  from  its  magnificent 


PIERREFOA'DS 


233 


chateau,  one  of  the  finest  existing  fortresses  of  the  middle 
ages.  The  original  castle  dated  from  the  XI.  c,  but  this 
was  replaced  by  the  existing  chateau  (1398-1406)  by  the 
Due  d'Orleans  (brother  of  Charles  VI.),  who  was  assas- 
sinated in  Paris  by  Jean  sans  Peur,  in  1407.  It  was  fre- 
quently besieged  by  the  English  and  bravely  defended 
against  them.  In  1588  it  became  the  refuge  of  a  band  of 
brigands  under  the  command  of  the  brave  Rieux,  vainly 
besieged  here  by  the  Due  d'Epernon  and  afterwards  by 


PIERREFONDS. 


the  Mare'chal  de  Biron,  but  eventually  taken  whilst  pre- 
paring to  attack  some  public  carriages,  and  hanged  at 
Compiegne.  Under  Louis  XIII.  the  castle  was  com- 
manded by  one  Villeneuve,  who  pillaged  the  country  much 
as  Rieux  had  done.  He  was  besieged  by  Charles  de 
Valois,  Comte  d'Auvergne,  and  the  castle  was  dismantled 
by  Richelieu.  During  the  Revolution  the  ruins  were  sold 
for  8,100  fr.  In  1 8 13  they  were  purchased  by  Napoleon 
I.,  and  their  restoration  was  begun  in  1858  under  VioUet- 
le-Duc  and  carried  out  through  twenty-eight  years  at  the 


234 


DA  ]'*  lYEAJ^  PARIS 


expense  of  the  State,  the  vast  works  being  rendered  com- 
paratively easy  owning  to  the  neighborhood  of  quarries  of 
the  right  kind  of  stone.  Now  the  magnificent  chateau  is 
as  complete  as  when  it  was  finished  in  the  XIV.  c,  every- 
thing ancient  having  been  carefully  preserved  and  the  old 
lines  strictly  follow^ed  out.  The  castle  is  open  daily  to  the 
public,  who  are  shown  over  it  by  warders,  in  large  parties. 

"The  chateau  is,  at  once,  a  fortress  of  the  first  rank  and  a 
residence  comprising  all  the  offices  requisite  to  provide  for  the 
existence  of  a  prince  or  a  numerous  garrison.  The  donjon  could 
be  completely  isolated  from  the  other  defenses.  It  was  the  habita- 
tion specially  reserved  for  the  lord  and  comprised  all  the  neces- 
sary offices :  cellars,  kitchens,  servants'  rooms,  wardrobes, 
saloons,  and  reception  halls.  The  building  that  contains  the 
great  halls  of  the  Chateau  of  Pierrefonds  occupies  the  west  side 
of  the  parallelogram  forming  the  perimeter  of  this  seigneurial 
residence.  Once  barracked  in  the  halls  of  the  ground  floor,  the 
troops  were  overlooked  by  the  galler)'-  of  the  entresol  which  is 
above  the  porch,  and  could  not  mount  to  the  defenses  except 
under  the  leading  of  their  officers.  These  halls,  moreover,  are 
beautiful,  well  ventilated  and  lighted,  provided  with  fire-places, 
and  easily  held  five  hundred  men." — VioUet-lc-Duc. 

The  chateau  forms  an  irregular  square  of  6,270  met.  at 
the  end  of  a  promontory  from  which  it  is  separated  by  a 
moat.  On  each  front  are  three  great  machicolated  towers. 
There  are  two  entrances  to  the  outer  wall,  though  from 
that  nearest  to  the  village  only  a  steep  footpath  leads  up 
the  hill.  Here,  an  outer  gate  and  two  drawbridges  are 
passed  before  entering  the  castle  court  close  to  the  donjon 
tower.  The  Annunciation  is  sculptured  on  the  front,  St. 
Michael  over  the  gate.  On  the  right  of  the  court  is  the 
chapel,  on  the  door  of  which  Viollet-le-Duc  is  himself 
represented  as  St.  James  of  Compostella.  In  the  interior 
the  gallery  pew  for  the  inmates  of  the  castle  draws  atten- 
tion.    A  statue  of  the  Due  d'Orleans  stands  opposite  the 


.?r.  JEAN  AUK  BOIS  235 

perron  which  leads  to  the  principal  apartments.  The 
Grande  Salle  de  Reception,  with  squirrels  holding  shields  of 
fleurs  de  lis  over  the  chimney ;  the  Cabinet  de  Travail  du 
Seigneur ;  the  Chambre  a  Coiicher  du  Seigneur,  with  its 
curious  arrangement  for  the  Garde  de  Nuit ;  the  chamber 
for  the  Knights  of  the  Round  Table,  are  some  of  those 
which  have  been  magnificently  restored,  their  ancient  deco- 
rations having  been  reproduced  as  far  as  possible.  Over 
the  chimney  of  the  Salle  d'Armes  are  statues  of  the  wives 
oipreux  chevaliers,  restored  from  statues  found  in  the 
ruins.  From  the  towers  there  is  a  wide  view  over  the 
forests  of  Compiegne  and  Villers-Cotterets.  In  the  south- 
west tower  are  oubliettes,  apparently  veritable.  The  dif- 
ferent arrangements  for  defense  through  the  whole  build- 
ing are  very  interesting,  and  are  well  pointed  out. 

"  If  the  defensive  arrangements  of  the  Chateau  of  Pierrefonds 
have  not  the  majestic  grandeur  of  those  of  the  Chateau  of  Coucy, 
they  are  still  combined  with  a  skill,  care,  and  foresight  in  details 
that  prove  to  what  a  degree  of  perfection  the  construction  of 
strong  seigneurial  places  had  been  carried  at  the  end  of  the  XIV. 
century,  and  to  what  extent  the  castellans  at  that  epoch  were  mis- 
trustful of  people  outside." — Viollet-le-Duc. 

The  village  Church  stands  upon  a  crypt  of  1060.  The 
choir  and  chapels  are  of  1206,  the  nave  and  portal  XV.  c, 
the  renaissance  tower  of  1552.  There  are  remains  of 
XIV.  c.  stained  glass. 

^\k.  from  Pierrefonds,  ^k.  from  Compiegne,  is  the 
ruined  gothic  church  of  St.  yean  aux  Bois,  occupying  the 
site  of  the  villa  of  Cuisa,  which  gave  the  forest  its  first 
name,  where  King  Gonthran  died  in  562,  saying — "Que 
pensez-vous  que  soit  le  roi  du  ciel,  qui  fait  mourir  de  si 
grands  rois  ?  "  It  was  Adelaide,  mother  of  Louis  VII.,  who 
built  the  convent  and  church  for  Benedictine  nuns.  The 
buildings  were  destroyed  by  the  soldiers  of  Turenne.    2^  k., 


236 


DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 


at  St.  Feriime^  are  remains  of  a  succursale  of  the  abbey. 
Some  of  the  tinestoaksin  the  forest  are  near  St.  Jean  aux 
Bois. 

i4/{'.  from  Compiegne,  traversing  the  whole  forest,  is 
Morienva/,  a  hunting-lodge  of  King  Dagobert,  who  founded 
a  church  and  two  monasteries  there.  The  monastery  for 
men  was  burnt  by  the  Normans  and  rebuilt,  as  well  as  the 
church,  in  the  X.  c. 


XL 

NANTOUILLET,    DAMMARTIN,  AND   ERMENON- 

VILLE. 

THIS  is  a  pleasant  and  easy  day's  excursion  from  the 
Gare  du  Nord.  The  best  way  is  to  take  the  8.50 
train,  which  does  not  stop  till  it  reaches  the  station  of 
Dammartin.  Here  the  courier  (a  pleasant  open  omnibus) 
waits,  and  will  take  travellers  to  {2\k.)  yuilly,  a  village 
circling  round  a  convent  and  the  whitewashed  buildings  of 
a  college  of  Oratorians,  founded  1638.  It  possesses  a 
statue  of  Cardinal  de  BeruUe,  founder  of  the  society  here, 
and  the  heart  of  Henri  d'Albret,  King  of  Navarre,  deposited 
at  Juilly  in  1555. 

Probably  the  courier  will  go  on  to  Natitouillet,  but  it  is 
only  I  k.  further.  Here  there  are  vast  remains  of  the  mag- 
nificent chateau  built  by  the  unpopular  minister  Duprat, 
who  was  chancellor  under  Frangois  I.  After  the  death  of 
his  wife,  ambition  induced  him  to  take  orders,  and  in  time 
he  became  cardinal-legate.  On  the  death  of  Clement  VII. 
he  hoped  to  succeed  to  the  papal  throne  through  the  in- 
fluence of  his  patron,  Francois  I.,  and  laid  aside  400,000  fr. 
to  spend  in  briber}^  for  the  purpose. 

A  stately  renaissance  gateway,  near  a  huge  brick  tower, 
forms  the  approach  to  the  chateau,  which  had  a  deep  moat^ 
formerly  crossed  by  a  drawbridge.     Over  the  entrance  is  a 


238 


DAYS  NEAR  PARIS 


Storm-beaten  statue,  said  to  represent  Jupiter,  whom  the 
founder — for  a  cardinal-legate — held  in  strange  admira- 
tion, as  is  attested  by  the  still  legible  inscription,  "Jovi 
genitori  et  protectori."  The  interior  of  the  castle  is  now 
occupied  as  a  farm,  but  has  many  renaissance  details  of  ex- 


■^^ 


PORTAL,    NANTOUILLET. 


quisite  beauty.  Especially  deserving  of  attention  are  the 
wide  gate  on  the  left  of  the  court,  the  door  represented  in 
the  woodcut,  and  a  graceful  staircase,  with  open  windows 
towards  the  court.  Amongst  the  ornaments,  the  salaman- 
der of  Francois  I.,  and  the  trefoils  of  Duprat  are  frequently 


DAMMARTIN  239 

repeated.  The  chimney-piece  of  the  Salle  des  Gardes 
bears  the  arms  of  Duprat,  and  medallions  with  mytholog- 
ical subjects. 

The  omnibus  from  Juilly  will  take  tourists  back  to  the 
station,  where  they  may  find  another  omnibus,  which  also 
comes  to  meet  the  train,  to  (4  k.  from  station)  Dammartin 
(Hotel  du  Chemin  de  Fer^  a  good  country  inn — excellent 
luncheon),  a  small  town  prettily  situated  on  the  ridge  of.  a 
low  hill.  It  was  burnt  down  in  1230,  according  to  the 
rhyming  chronicle — 

L'an  mil  deux  cents  vingt  et  dix, 
Fut  Dammartin  en  flamrae  mis. 

It  has  two  churches,  the  more  important  of  which, 
founded  1480,  has  a  good  flamboyant  entrance.  In  its 
beautiful  choir,  divided  by  two  central  pillars,  and  sur- 
rounded by  oak  stalls,  is  the  fine  altar-tomb  of  the  founder, 
Antoine  de  Chabannes,  the  companion  in  arms  of  Lahire 
and  Jeanne  Dare,  who  became  Count  of  Dammartin  by  his 
marriage  with  Marguerite  de  Nanteuil.  It  was  Antoine 
de  Chabannes  who  revealed  to  Charles  VII.  the  con- 
spiracy of  his  son,  afterwards  Louis  XI.,  for  which  he  fell 
into  disgrace  and  had  his  property  confiscated,  as  soon  as 
that  king  came  to  the  throne,  though  his  possessions  were 
afterwards  restored^  and  he  lived  to  become  the  trusted 
friend  of  the  king.  Pierre  Lemire,  who  saved  the  church 
under  the  Terror,  is  buried  close  by.  On  the  north-east 
of  the  town  are  some  remains  of  the  castle  of  Antoine  de 
Chabannes,  sold  to  Anne  de  Montmorency  in  1554. 

It  is  an  easy  drive  of  8  k.  (carriage  for  half-day,  8  fr.) 
from  Dammartin  to  Ermenonville,  through  an  uninterest- 
ing country,  but  passing  the  renaissance  church  of  Orthis, 
and  Eve^  where  the  church  has  a  very  good  early-pointed 


240 


DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 


tower.  In  a  wooded  hollow,  close  to  the  road,  is  the 
handsome  moated  XVIII.  c.  chateau  of  Ermenonville^  be- 
longing to  Prince  Radziwill.  Here  permission  must  be 
asked  of  the  concierge,  before  following  a  path,  along  (on 
the  other  side  of  the  road)  the  shore  of  an  artificial  lake, 
to  an  island  at  the  further  end,  reached  by  a  bridge. 
Here,  under  some  poplars^,  is  a  tomb,  still  bearing  its 
inscription  to  Rousseau — "  L'homme  de  la  verite  et  de  la 
nature."  On  a  smaller  island  is  the  tomb  of  the  painter 
G.  F.  Meyer,  1779.  Not  far  distant,  but  on  a  separate 
property,  is  La  Cabane  de  y.  y.  Rousseau^  a  cottage  where 
he  used  to  rest  on  his  botanizing  excursions. 

Ermenonville,  which  had  previously  belonged  to  the 
families  of  Orgemont  and  Montmorenc}^,  fell,  in  1763,  into 
the  hands  of  the  Marquis  de  Girardin,  who  had  a  natural 
talent  for  landscape  gardening,  and  made  it  one  of  the 
prettiest  places  near  Paris.  He  offered  a  retreat  here,  in 
1778,  to  Jean  Jacques  Rousseau,  then  very  failing  in  body 
and  mind,  who  inhabited  a  little  pavilion  (now  destroyed) 
near  the  chateau.  Here  he  expatiated  over  the  delights 
of  the  country,  and  gave  botanical  lessons  to  the  children 
of  his  host.  At  the  end  of  six  weeks  he  had  a  fall,  from 
which  he  injured  his  head,  and  died,  July  3,  1778.  He 
was  buried  the  same  evening  by  moonlight  in  the  Isle  of 
Poplars,  which  has  been  a  place  of  sentimental  pilgrimage 
ever  since,  though  his  remains  were  removed  to  the 
Pantheon,  October  11,  1794.  When  Bonaparte  visited  the 
tomb  of  Rousseau,  he  said — "  It  would  have  been  better 
for  France  if  this  man  had  never  existed  !  " — "  And  why, 
citizen  consul  ?  "  asked  Girardin.  "  Because  he  paved  the 
way  for  the  French  Revolution."  "  I  think,  citizen  consul, 
that  it  is  scarcely  for  you  to  complain  of  the  Revolution." 
"Well,  the  future  will  learn  that  it  would  have  been  better 


ERMEXON  l  'JLLE  2  4 1 

for  the  repose  of  the  world  if  neither  Rousseau  nor  I  had 
ever  existed. " 

A  walk  of  two  hours,  through  woods,  leads  from  Erme- 
nonville  to  Morfontaine  (see  Chap.  IX.).  Both  places 
may  be  visited  from  Senlis,  from  which  Ermenonville  is 
13  k.  and  Morfontaine  10  k.  distant. 


XII. 

VINCENNE  S  A  ND  BRIE-  COM  TE-R  OBER  T. 

VINCENNES,  a  short  drive  from  Paris,  is  most  easil)'  reached 
by  omnibus  from  the  Louvre,  the  Bourse,  or  Place  de  la 
Bastille  to  Vincennes  itself  ;  or  b)^  the  Chemin  de  Eer  de  Vincennes 
(Place  de  la  Bastille)  in  15  min.  Those  who  wish  to  walk  to  the 
castle  through  the  Bois  xxva^y  take  the  tramway  from  the  Bastille  to 
Charenton,  descending  at  the  Porte  de  Picpus  ;  or  may  take  the 
railway,  and  leave  it  at  the  station  of  Bel-Air,  close  to  the  Porte 
de  Picpus.  From  the  Porte  de  Picpus,  the  Avenue  Daumesnil 
leads  by  the  Lac  Daumesnil  to  the  fortress  :  or  by  the  Chaussee 
du  Lac  (third  turn,  left)  one  may  reach  the  Lac  de  St.  Mande,  and 
follow  the  Route  de  la  Tourelle  from  thence,  and  then  the  Route 
de  I'Esplanade  to  the  chateau. 

From  the  station  of  Vincennes  the  Rue  de  Montreuil  leads  to 
the  chateau. 

The  chateau  is  only  shown  in  detail,  from  12  to  4,  to  those 
furnished  with  a  special  order  from  the  Minister  of  War.  Strangers 
are  always  allowed  to  visit  the  chapel  in  the  centre  of  the  enclos- 
ure unattended.  Artists  are  not  allowed  to  draw  without  special 
permission. 

The  first  castle  of  Vincennes  was  built  by  Louis  VII., 
1 164.  This  was  rebuilt  by  Philippe  Auguste,  and  again 
by  Philippe  de  Valois.  In  1560  Catherine  de  Medicis  be- 
gan to  add  the  Pavilions  du  Roi  et  de  la  Reine,  which 
Louis  XIV.  united  by  covered  galleries,  forming  a  vast 
rectangle,  flanked  by  nine  outer  towers.  In  the  middle  of 
the  XVIII.  c.  the  chateau  ceased  to  be  a  ro3^al  residence, 
and  it  became  in  turn  a  china  manufactory,  a  military 


VINCENNES  243 

school,  and  a  manufactory  of  arms.  It  was  put  up  for 
sale  at  the  Revolution,  but  no  one  would  buy  it,  and  un- 
der Louis  Philippe  it  was  restored  as  a  fortress  and  bar- 
rack. 

Many  historic  recollections  linger  about  the  old  castle. 
It  was  there  that  St.  Louis  received  the  Crown  of  Thorns 
from  the  Emperor  Baldwin,  and  thence  that  he  set  out  for 
his  two  crusades.  Thither  his  body  was  brought  back 
from  the  coast  of  Africa. 

"When  the  king  set  out  for  the  Holy  Land,  he  went  to  Vin- 
cennes  to  take  leave  of  his  mother.  At  the  end  of  a  year  his  re- 
mains were  brought  to  the  donjon  he  had  loved.  Nothing  could 
be  more  sad  than  the  return  of  the  young  king,  Philippe  III.  ; 
he  was  escorted  by  the  mortal  remains  of  Louis  IX.,  his  father  ; 
of  Jean,  his  brother ;  of  Thibaut,  King  of  Navarre,  his  brother-in- 
law  ;  of  Isabelle  of  Aragon,  his  wife;  of  Alphonso,  his  uncle  ; 
and  of  Jeanne  of  Toulouse,  his  aunt  ;  all  having  died,  either  in 
Africa,  or  Italy,  during  this  fatal  expedition." — Touc  hard-La  fosse, 
' '  Hist,  de  Pa) is." 

It  was  at  Vincennes  that  Enguerrand  de  Marigny,  the 
powerful  minister  of  Louis  le  Hutin,  was  tried  for  having 
misappropriated  the  public  finances,  and  unjustly  con- 
demned to  be  hanged  at  Montfaucon,  13 15.  It  was  there 
that  Louis  X.  (1316),  Philippe  V.  (1322),  and  Charles  IV. 
(1328)  died.  There  Charles  V.  was  born  (1337)  and 
passed  the  greater  part  of  his  life,  and  there  Queen  Isa- 
beau  de  Baviere  enjoyed  her  orgies. 

Henry  V.,  of  England,  after  conquering  the  greater 
part  of  France,  died  at  Vincennes,  in  his  thirty-fourth 
year. 

"  Hung  be  the  heavens  with  black,  yield  day  to  night  ! 

King  Henry  the  Fifth  too  famous  to  live  long  ! 
England  ne'er  lost  a  king  of  so  much  worth." 

Shakspeare^  ''Hen,   VI.,"  Act.  i.  sc,  i. 


244 


DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 


"  One  of  the  doctors,  from  whom  he  '  asked  for  the  truth,'  flung 
himself  on  his  knees  by  his  bed  and  told  him  to  think  of  his  soul, 
for  he  had  only  two  hours  to  live  ;  Henry  summoned  his  con- 
fessor and  other  churchmen,  and  ordered  them  to  recite  the  seven 
penitential  psalms.  'And  when  they  came  to  the  Benigne  fac, 
Domine,  where  the  words  vuiri  I/ieritsalcm  occur,  he  said  aloud 
that  he  had  the  intention,  after  he  had  placed  the  kingdom  of 
France  in  peace,  to  go  and  conquer  Jerusalem,  if  it  had  been  the 
pleasure  of  his  Creator  to  let  him  live  his  life.'     Then,  as  if  to  rc- 


DONJON    OF   VINCENNES. 


assure  himself  in  this  solemn  hour,  he  recalled  the  fact  that  his 
war  with  France  had  been  approved  by  the  '  most  holy  persons  '  of 
all  the  prelates  of  England,  and  that  he  had  waged  it  without 
offending  God  or  putting  his  soul  in  peril.  'And,  briefly  there- 
after, he  gave  up  the  ghost,'  August  31,  1422." — Henri Marthi, 
"  Hist,  de  France y 

"His  body  was  cut  in  pieces,  and  boiled  in  a  cauldron  till 
tlie  flesh  separated  from  the  bones  ;  the  water  was  thrown  into  a 
cemetery,  and  the  bones  and  flesh  were  placed  in  a  lead  coffin, 


VINCENNES 


H^ 


with   many  kinds  of  spices  and  odoriferous  things,  and   smellcd 
well.  " — Juvenal  dcs  Ursins. 

Louis  XI.  used  Vincennes  as  a  state  prison,  but  his 
successor  continued  to  reside  there  occasionally,  and  in 
1574  it  witnessed  the  miserable  death-bed  of  Charles  IX., 
in  his  twenty- fourth  year,  red  from  the  Massacre  of  St. 
Bartholomew. 

"  His  end  was  so  miserable  that  even  the  Huguenot  writers 
display  some  pity.  His  short  and  broken  slumbers  were  troubled 
by  hideous  visions  ;  exhausted  by  violent  hemorrhages,  he  awoke 
bathed  in  blood,  and  this  blood  reminded  him  of  that  of  his  sub- 
jects shed  in  streams  by  his  orders  ;  he  saw  in  his  dreams  all  the 
corpses  floating  down  the  Seine,  and  he  heard  in  the  air  lament- 
able cries.  The  night  before  his  death  his  nurse,  Avhom  he  loved 
much,  although  she  was  a  Huguenot,  and  who  watched  beside 
his  bed,  heard  him  lament,  and  weep,  and  sigh.  'Oh,  nurse,' 
he  cried,  '  what  blood  and  what  murders  !  Oh,  what  bad  advice 
I  had !  O  my  God,  pardon  me  for  these  things,  and  show 
mercy  unto  me.  I  know  not  where  I  am,  so  perplexed  and  agi- 
tated do  they  render  me  !  What  will  become  of  all  this  [all  this 
country]  ?  What  will  become  of  me — me  to  whom  God  entrusts 
it?  I  am  lost,  I  feel  sure  ! '  Then  the  nurse  said  to  him,  '  Sire, 
the  blood  and  the  murders  be  on  the  heads  of  those  who  made 
you  do  them,  and  on  their  evil  counsel.'  His  last  words  were 
that  he  rejoiced  at  not  leaving  any  male  child  to  wear  the  crown 
after  him." — Henri  Martin. 

Cardinal  Mazarin  died  at  Vincennes,  March  3,  1661 ; 
but  the  death  by  which  the  castle  is  most  remembered  is 
that  of  the  brave  and  innocent  Due  d'Enghien,  son  of  the 
Prince  de  Conde,  treacherously  seized  on  foreign  soil,  con- 
demned without  a  trial,  and  executed  at  once  by  order  of 
Napoleon  I.  in  the  night  of  March  20,  1804. 

"  The  exit  from  the  stairs  was  by  a  low  door  opened  on  the 
ditch.  The  procession  skirted  for  some  time  in  the  darkness  the 
foot  of  the  high  walls  of  the  fortress  as  far  as  the  sub-basements 
of  the  pavilion  of  the  queen.  On  turning  the  angle  of  this  pavil- 
ion, which  displayed  another  portion  of  the  ditch  concealed  by  the 


246  DA  yS  N^AR   PARIS 

walls,  the  prince  found  himself  suddenly  face  to  face  with  the 
detachments  of  troops  posted  to  witness  his  death.  The  picket 
of  fusiliers  detailed  for  the  execution  was  separated  from  the 
other  soldiers,  and  their  muskets  glittered  a  few  paces  from  him. 
Some  lanterns,  carried  by  hand,  lighted  the  ditch,  the  walls,  and 
the  grave.  The  prince  halted  at  a  sign  from  his  conductors  ;  he 
saw  his  fate  at  a  glance,  and  did  not  change  color. 

"He  turned  to  the  group  of  officers  and  of  gendarmes  who 
had  preceded  him,  and  asked  in  a  loud  voice  if  there  was  an}- 
one  among  them  who  would  render  him  a  last  service.  Lieu- 
tenant Noirot  left  the  group,  and  approached  him.  His  bearing 
indicated  his  intention.  The  prince  said  a  few  words  to  him  in 
a  low  tone.  Noirot,  then  turning  towards  the  troops,  '  Gen- 
darmes,' he  said,  '  has  one  of  you  a  pair  of  scissors  about  him  ?' 
The  gendarmes  searched  their  knapsacks,  and  passed  from  hand 
to  hand  to  the  prince  a  pair  of  scissors.  He  took  off  his  cap,  cut 
a  lock  of  his  hair,  drew  a  letter  from  his  bosom,  took  a  ring  from 
his  finger,  folded  the  hair,  the  letter,  and  the  ring  in  a  piece  of 
paper,  and  gave  the  little  packet,  his  only  bequest,  to  Lieutenant 
Noirot,  charging  him,  in  the  name  of  his  situation  and  his  death, 
to  see  that  it  was  forwarded  to  the  young  Princess  Charlotte  de 
Rohan,  at  Ettenheim. 

"  This  love  message  being  thus  entrusted,  he  collected  him- 
self for  a  moment,  his  hands  joined  to  say  his  last  pra3'er,  and  in 
a  low  tone  commended  his  soul  to  God.  Then  he  took  five  or 
six  steps  to  place  himself  in  front  of  the  platoon,  whose  loaded 
arms  he  saw  gleaming.  The  glare  of  a  large  lantern,  with  several 
candles  in  it,  placed  on  the  little  supporting  wall  that  overlooked 
the  open  ditch,  streamed  on  him  and  gave  light  to  the  soldiers  to 
aim  by.  The  platoon  retired  some  paces  to  measure  the  distance  ; 
the  adjutant  gave  the  word,  '  Fire  ! '  The  young  prince,  as  if 
struck  by  lightning,  fell,  without  a  cry  or  movement,  to  the 
ground.  The  clocks  of  the  chateau  were  striking  three  o'clock 
in  the  morning. 

"  His  dog,  that  had  followed  him  into  the  ditch,  howled  and 
flung  itself  on  his  body.  The  poor  animal  was  with  difficulty  re- 
moved, and  given  to  one  of  the  prince's  servants  ;  it  was  sent  to 
the  Princess  Charlotte,  the  only  messenger  from  that  tomb  in 
which  was  sleeping  he  whom  she  never  ceased  to  weep. 

"  He  was  laid,  fully  dressed,  in  a  grave  dug  beneath  the  wall. 
His  blood  cried  and  will  cry  aloud  against  his  murderer  from  age 
to  age." — Lamartine^ 


VINCENNES 


247 


"Examined  by  night,  condenined  by  niglit,  the  Duke  d'En- 
ghien  was  killed  by  night.  Tliis  horrible  sacrifice  was  rightly 
consummated  in  darkness,  in  order  that  it  might  be  said  that 
every  law  had  been  violated,  even  those  that  prescribed  publicity 
of  execution." — Diipiu. 

It  was  in  the  moat,  on  the  side  towards  the  esplanade, 
to  the  right  of  the  drawbridge,  in  the  angle  formed  by  the 
Tour  de  la  Reine,  that  the  crime  was  committed.  A  red 
granite  column,  inscribed  "  Hie  cecidit,"  marked  the  spot 
till  the  Revolution  of  July,  when  it  was  destroyed. 

Vi?icennes  is  a  fortress  rather  than  a  chateau.  The 
outline  of  the  enclosure,  keep,  towers,  and  curtain  walls — 
a  splendid  example  of  a  military  work  of  the  XIV.  c. — 
prove  that  a  regular  form  was  then  adopted  wherever  the 
site  allowed.  Though  considerable  walls  have  been  added 
at  later  times,  it  is  still  easy  to  detach  the  XIV.  c.  fortress 
from  its  additions. 

Entering  the  gates,  we  find,  on  the  left  of  the  great 
court,  the  Salle  d'Armes,  the  Chapel,  and  the  Pavilion  de 
la  Reine ;  on  the  right,  the  Donjon  and  the  Pavilion  du 
Roi. 

The  Chapel  (the  successor  of  those  built  by  St.  Louis 
and  Philippe  de  Valois)  was  founded  by  Charles  V.  in 
1379,  ^^^  finished  by  Henri  II.  in  1552. 

"At  Vincennes,  a  large  tribune  is  carried  by  a  vault  above 
the  entrance  ;  it  occupies  the  whole  first  bay.  The  statues  of  the 
apostles  and  of  four  angles,  behind  the  altar,  were,  at  Vincennes 
as  at  Paris,  placed  against  the  pillars,  at  the  height  of  the  window- 
sills,  and  supported  by  consoles  and  covered  with  canopies.  The 
supporting  walls  beneath  the  mullions  were  not  adorned  with 
arcade  work  at  Vincennes,  but  were  probably  at  one  time  fur- 
nished with  wooden  bars  and  tapestry.  The  windows  of  the 
apse  alone  have  kept  their  stained  glass,  which  was  painted  in 
the  XVI.  century  by  Jean  Cousin,  and  represents  the  Last  Judg- 
ment, Among  the  stained  windows  of  the  renaissance,  these  can 
take  the  first  rank  ;  they  are  well  composed  and  of  fine  execution. 


248 


DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 


The  roof  of  the  Sainte  Chapelle  at  Vincennes,  constructed  of 
oak,  and  planned  with  great  perfection,  was  surmounted  only  by 
a  very  small,  simple  spire  that  no  longer  exists." — Vioilet-h'-Diic. 

In  the  stained  glass  of  the  Last  Judgment  (saved  during 
the  Revolution,  in  the  Muse'e  des  Petits-Augustins),  the 
figure  of  Diane  de  Poitiers  is  pointed  out — naked,  her 
golden  hair  encircled  by  a  blue   riband.     In  the  former 


CHAPEL   OF   VINCENNES. 


sacristy  (left  of  choir)  is  the  tomb,  by  Deseine,  erected  by 
Louis  XVIII.  to  the  Due  d'Enghien,  whose  body,  buried 
on  the  spot  where  he  fell,  was  then  exhumed  from  the 
moat  and  brought  to  the  chapel.  The  Due  de  Bourbon, 
who  died  at  St.  Leu  in  August,  1830,  vainly  implored  in 
his  will  to  be  buried  here  by  his  son. 

The  donjon  is  a  lofty  square  tower,  with  a  turret  at 
each  angle.  It  is  five  stories  high,  and  when  the  castle 
was  a  royal  residence,  the  king  occupied  the  first  floor,  the 


VlNCENA^ES  249 

queen  and  her  children  the  second,  the  rest  of  the  royal 
family  the  third,  the  guards  and  servants  the  fourth  and 
fifth.  Some  of  the  panelling  and  wood-carving  of  the 
royal  apartments  is  now  to  be  seen  in  the  Salles  His- 
toriques  of  the  Louvre.  Amongst  the  many  illustrious 
prisoners  immured  here  were  the  leaders  of  the  Fronde 
(1650),  of  whom  the  Prince  de  Conde'  amused  himself  by 
the  cultivation  of  flowers,  which  produced  the  verses  of 
Mile  de  Scudery : — 

"En  voyant  ces  oeillets,  qu'un  illustre  guerrier 
Arrose  d'une  main  qui  gagne  des  batailles, 
Souviens-toi  quApollon  batissait  des  murailles, 
Et  ne  t'etonne  pas  que  Mars  soit  jardinier." 

The  quietist  Mme  Guyon,  the  friend  of  Fe'nelon,  was 
imprisoned  here  in  1695,  and  composed  a  great  volume  of 
mystic  verses  here.^  Diderot,  author  of  the  Pensees  Philo- 
sophiques,  was  imprisoned  here  in  1749,  and  Mirabeau  in 
1777,  who  wrote  several  of  his  works  during  his  three 
years'  incarceration.  He  thus  describes  the  introduction 
of  a  prisoner  to  Vincennes  : — 

"  The  feeble  gleam  of  a  truly  sepulchral  lamp  lights  the 
prisoner's  steps  ;  two  conductors,  like  the  infernal  attendants 
whom  the  poets  place  in  Tartarus,  guide  his  walk,  the  bolts  be- 
yond number  strike  his  ears  and  eyes,  doors  of  iron  turn  on  their 
huge  hinges,  the  trembling  light  that  pierces  with  effort  into  this 
ocean  of  darkness  and  allows  to  be  perceived  everywhere,  chains, 
bolts,  and  bars,  augments  the  horror  of  such  a  spectacle  and  the 
dread  it  inspires.  The  unfortunate  captive  at  last  arrives  at  his 
den.  Here  he  finds  a  truckle-bed,  two  chairs  of  straw  and  often 
of  wood,  a  jug  almost  always  broken,  a  table  covered  with  grease 
.  .  .  and  what  more?  Nothing!  Imagine  the  effect  produced 
on  the  soul  by  the  first  glance  he  casts  around  him." — Lettres  de 
cachet. 

Before  the  Revolution  visitors  were  often  admitted  to 

1  Voltaire. 


250  DAYS  NEAR  PARIS 

the  prisons  at  Vincennes,  and  could  read  upon  the  walls 
such  inscriptions  as,  "  II  faut  mourir,  mon  frere,  il  faut 
mourir,  quand  il  plaira  a  Dieu ;  "  "  Beati  qui  persecutionem 
patiuntur  propter  justitiam,  quoniam  ipsorum  est  regnum 
coelorum  ; "  and,  over  the  door,  "  Career  Socratis,  templum 
honoris."  The  holy  Jansenist  leader,  M.  de  St.  Cyran, 
was  imprisoned  and  composed  many  of  his  most  important 
works  here. 

The  Manufacture  royale  de  Porcelaine  de  Frafice  was 
founded  in  1753  by  Louis  XV.  at  the  instance  of  Mme  de 
Pompadour,  and  from  its  origin  was  occupied  in  the  manu- 
facture of  flowers  in  china. 

"  Disordered  taste  in  porcelain  made  a  whole  flora  bloom  ; 
entire  beds,  with  all  their  varieties  of  plants,  issued  from  the 
furnaces  of  Vincennes,  and  took  life  under  the  hands  of  skilful 
workmen,  who  forged  a  vegetation  of  bronze  for  these  flowers  of 
enamel . " —  Courajod. 

The  Bois  de  Vincen?ies,  terribly  curtailed  of  late  years, 
is  the  especial  '' promenade  du  peuple."  Six  railway  sta- 
tions, on  the  Vincennes  Brie-Comte-Robert  line  give  ac- 
cess to  it ;  that  of  Nogent  or  Fontenay  is  nearest  to  the 
Lac  des  Minimes,  that  of  Joinville-le-Pont  to  the  Faisan- 
derie.  The  Rue  de  Paris  leads  from  the  chateau  to  the 
eastern  part  of  the  Bois,  containing  [2  k.)  Lcs  M'uwnes^ 
where  a  pretty  lake  with  islands  and  cascades  occupies 
the  site  where  a  religious  house,  founded  by  Louis  VII., 
once  stood.  Here  the  Due  de  Montpensier  gave  a  fa- 
mous fete,  July  6,  1847.  On  Sunday  afternoons  in  sum- 
mer the  Bois  is  crowded.  Under  every  tree,  along  the 
edge  of  every  lawn,  by  the  bank  of  every  stream,  are 
family  picnic  parties,  easily  satisfied  and  intensely  happy. 
Stolid  Englishmen  are  astonished  at  the  eagerness  with 
which  grown-up  people  are  playing  at  ball  or  battledore. 


LE  BOIS  DE   VINCENNES 


251 


Nowhere  is  the  light-hearted,  kindly,  cheery  character  of 
the  French  middle  classes  seen  to  greater  advantage.  In 
England  such  a  scene  would  be  an  orgy  ;  here  all  is  quiet 
enjoyment — coarseness,  drunkenness,  roughness  are  un- 
known. It  was  during  a  showier  of  rain  in  the  park  of 
Vincennes,  when  all  the  rest  of  the  Court  had  hurried  to 
take  shelter,  that  Louis  XIV.  lingered  by  the  side  of  Mile 
de  la  Valliere,  and  declared  his  love  to  her. 


From  Vincennes  a  line  leads  in  a  little  more  than  one 
hour  to  Brie  Comte-Robert,  passing — 

9  k,  JVoge?it-sur-Mar?te,  where  Charles  V.  built  a  cha- 
teau— "  un  moult  notable  manoir,"  called  the  Chateau  de 
la  Beaute, — where  he  died  (1380)  ;  it  was  destroyed  in  the 
XVI.  c.  In  1 72 1  the  painter  Antoine  Watteau  died  here, 
saying  to  the  cure  of  Nogent,  who  held  a  common  crucifix 
before  his  closing  eyes,  "  Otez-moi  cette  image  !  Com- 
ment un  artiste  a-t-il  pu  rendre  si  mal  les  traits  d'un 
Dieu  ? " 

13  /^.  ,5"/.  Maur-Port-Creteil, — A  famous  Benedictine 
abbey  was  founded  at  St.  Maur-ks-Fosses,  in  the  reign  of 
Clovis  II.,  and  dedicated  to  St.  Peter,  but  changed  its 
name  in  868,  when  the  monks  of  Grandfeuille  in  Anjou 
fled  thither  from  the  Normans,  bringing  with  them  the 
wonder-working  body  of  St.  Maur,  which  was  henceforth 
invoked  here  every  June  24,  by  vast  multitudes  shouting, 
"  St.  Maur,  grand  ami  de  Dieu,  envoyez-moi  gue'rison,  s'il 
vous  plait !  " 

On  the  death  of  Henry  V.  of  England  at  Vincennes  in 
1423,  his  entrails  were  buried  at  St.  Maur.  The  abbey 
was  secularized  in  the  XVI.  c.  by  the  bishop  of  Paris, 
when  its  monks  were  replaced  by  eight  canons,  of  whom 


55^  -DA  Ys  Near  parts 

Francois  Rabelais  was  one.  Bishop  Jean  de  Bellay  em> 
ployed  Philibert  Delorme  to  build  him,  on  the  site  of  the 
abbey,  a  palace,  which  was  sold  to  Catherine  de  Medicis 
in  1536.  From  the  last  Valois,  the  chateau  passed  to  Char- 
lotte de  la  Tre'mouille,  and  from  her,  by  marriage,  to  the 
house  of  Conde.  The  relics  which  had  belonged  to  the 
abbey  were  removed  to  St.  Germain  des  Pres  at  Paris,  and 
the  XI.  0.  reliquary  of  St.  Maur  is  now  in  the  Louvre. 
The  chateau  perished  in  the  Revolution. 

17/C'.  La  Vareiitie  St.  Maur. — On  the  opposite  side  of 
the  Marne  is  Chefinevieres^  in  a  situation  so  admirable  that 
Louis  XIV.  thought  of  making  it  the  royal  town  before  he 
decided  to  build  at  Versailles.  An  avenue  leads  to  the 
very  picturesque  chateau  of  Ormesson,  built  (XVI.  c.  and 
XVII.  c.)  in  a  lake,  and  connected  by  two  bridges  with  the 
main  land. 

2o>('.  Siicy-Bo7i7ieiiil. — The  Chateau  de  Sjicy,  of  1640, 
belonged  to  the  Marechal  de  Saxe,  and  his  chamber  retains 
the  furniture  of  his  time.  In  the  neighborhood  are  the 
chateau  of  Chaud-Moncel^  which  belonged  to  the  royalist 
"  dames  de  Sainte-Amaranthe,"  guillotined  on  accusation  of 
plotting  against  the  life  of  Robespierre,  and  the  chateau  de 
Mofttaleau,  which  belonged  to  the  Abbe  de  Coulanges,  and 
where  Mme  de  Sevigne  lived  from  her  sixth  to  her  twelfth 
year.  "Vous  ai-je  mande,"  she  wrote  late  in  life  to  her 
daughter,  "que  je  fus  I'autre  jour  a  Sucy.  Je  fus  ravie  de 
voir  cette  maison  oil  j'ai  passe  ma  plus  belle  jeunesse ;  je 
n'avais  point  de  rhumatismes  en  ce  temps-la  !  " 

22Z'.  Boissy-St.-Leger. — Close  by,  on  the  left  of  the 
line,  is  the  very  handsome  moated  Chateau  de  Gros-Bois, 
built  by  the  arrogant  Charles  de  Valois,  Due  d'Angouleme, 
bastard  of  Charles  IX.  and  Marie  Toucbet.  Wishing  to 
enlarge  his  park  at  the  expense  of  the  village,  but  being  op- 


BRIE-  COM  TE-R  OBER  T  253 

posed  by  the  cure,  who  refused  to  allow  the  church  to  be 
pulled  down,  he  took  advantage  of  a  processional  pilgrim- 
age in  which  the  whole  parish  was  engaged,  to  set  such  a 
vast  number  of  soldiers  to  work,  that  when  the  priest  and 
his  congregation  returned,  no  sign  of  the  church  remained, 
and  its  site  was  already  enclosed  within  the  park  walls. 
In  the  XVIII.  c.  Monsieur,  Comte  de  Provence,  was  the 
owner  of  Gros-Bois.  When  it  was  sold  by  the  nation,  it 
was  bought  by  Barras,  who  was  succeeded  in  turn  by 
Moreau^  Fouche,  and  Berthier.  It  still  belongs  to  the  son 
of  the  Marechal  Prince  de  Wagram,  and  is  filled  with  his- 
toric relics  of  the  Empire. 

20  y^.  Vilkcresfies. — A  little  south  is  the  Chateau  de 
Cercay^  which  was  the  residence  of  M.  Rouher,  the  favorite 
minister  of  Napoleon  III. 

2i^k.  Brie-Co7nte-Robert  (Hotel  de  la  Grace  de  Dieu), 
named  from  Robert  of  France,  fifth  son  of  Louis  le  Gros. 
It  retains  some  ruins  of  a  XII.  c.  Castle.  The  Church,  of 
the  XII.  c.  and  XIII.  c,  was  modernized  in  the  XVI.  c. 
In  the  chevet,  which  ends  in  a  straight  wall,  is  a  fine  rose 
window,  with  XIII.  c.  glass,  representing  the  months.  The 
side  chapels  are  XIV.  c.  and  XVI.  c.  In  the  north  aisle 
is  a  XIII.  c.  tomb,  with  the  figure  of  a  warrior.  The  tower 
is  XIII.  c.  The  Hospital  has  a  gothic  portal,  with  six 
arches  of  the  XIII.  c. 


XIII. 

ME  A  UX. 

THE  station  of  the  Chefniu  de  Fer  de  PEst  or  de 
Strasbourg  is  close  to  the  Gare  du  Nord  and  to  the 
Boulevard  Magenta.  The  scenery  of  the  line  is  exceed- 
ingly bare  and  ugly.  It  passes  through  the  banlietie  of 
Paul  de  Koch,  described  in  so  many  of  his  novels,  but 
now  built  over  and  blackened,  to — • 

II  k.  Bondy,  near  the  forest  of  Bondy,  where  Childeric 
II.,  king  of  Austrasia,  is  supposed  to  have  been  murdered 
in  673.  The  Avenue  de  I'Abbaye  leads  to  the  site  of  the 
Abbey  of  Livry,  founded  1200,  whither  Mme  de  Sevigne 
often  retired,  and  whence  she  wrote — 

"Holy  Tuesday,  March  24,  1671.  I  have  been  here  three 
hours,  with  the  purpose  of  retiring  from  the  world  and  noise  ; 
till  Friday  evening,  I  design  to  be  in  solitude.  I  make  a  little 
La  Trappe  of  the  place  ;  I  wish  to  pray  God  here,  and  make  a 
thousand  reflections.    I  have  determined  to  fast  a  good  deal." 

The  small  remains  of  the  abbey  are  now  an  orphanage ; 
the  gardens  are  cut  up  and  destroyed.  At  the  Restora- 
tion the  chateau  of  Livry  belonged  to  the  Comte  de 
Damas,  the  faithful  friend  of  Louis  XVIII. ,  who  slept  here 
April  II,  1814,  the  day  before  his  entry  into  Paris. 

13  k.  I.e  Raiiicy  (Rincianum),  where,  in  the  XVII  c, 
Jacques  Bordier  built  a  magnificent  chateau  on  the  site  of 


CHELLES 


255 


a  Benedictine  abbey.  In  1750  the  Due  d'Orleans  made 
here  a  park  which  is  described  in  the  stilted  verses  of 
Delille.  Under  the  first  empire  the  chateau  belonged  to 
Marshal  Junot,  whose  wife  (Duchesse  d'Abrantes)  de- 
scribes the  first  interview  of  Jerome  Bonaparte  with  his 
second  wife,  Princess  Catherine  of  Wurtemburg,  which 
took  place  there  under  her  auspices.  Napoleon  I.  after- 
wards imperiously  forced  the  Duke  d'Abrantes  to  give  up 
the  chateau  to  him.  It  was  pulled  down  under  Louis 
Philippe,  and  the  park  has  since  been  cut  up  and  de- 
stroyed. The  fine  marble  busts  of  Henri  11. ,  Charles  IX., 
Henri  III.,  and  Henri  IV.,  now  in  the  Louvre,  formed 
part  of  the  decorations  of  Raincy. 

\^  k.  Villemoiible-Gag7iy. — The  church  of  Gagny  dates 
partly  from  the  XIII.  c.  2  k.  distant  (omnibus,  30  c.)  is 
Monffermeil^  celebrated  by  Victor  Hugo  and  Paul  de 
Koch,  but  the  place  is  much  changed  of  late  years. 

"  To-day  it  is  a  pretty  large  village,  ornamented,  all  the  year 
through,  by  villas  in  plaster,  and,  on  Sundays,  by  blooming 
citizens.' ' — Les  Mise'rables. 

19  k.  Chelles^  where  the  early  kings  of  France  had  a 
palace,  stained,  in  the  VI.  c,  by  the  crimes  of  Frede- 
gonde,  who  murdered  the  last  of  her  stepsons  at  Noisy,  on 
the  opposite  bank  of  the  Maine,  in  580.  The  great  stone 
called  Pierre  de  Chilperic  once  sustained  the  Croix  de 
Sainte-Bauteur^  marking  the  spot  where  Fredegonde  caused 
her  husband  Chilperic  to  be  assassinated.  That  morning 
he  had  come  playfully  behind  her  whilst  she  was  dressing 
her  hair,  and  had  given  her  a  rap  with  his  cane.  "Pourquoi 
me  frappes-tu  ainsi,  Landri  ? "  she  had  exclaimed,  thinking 
that  it  was  the  Maire  du  Palais,  her  favored  lover  of  the 
moment.  The  king  then  went  off  abruptly  to  the  chase, 
and  she  felt  that   he    must   never  return.     Dagobert  L, 


2t6  ^A  YS  NEAR   PARIS 

Clovis  II.,  and  his  son  lived  at  the  villa  regalis  of  Chelles, 
Clotaire  III.  died  there,  and  Robert  II.  (le  Pieux)  con- 
voked meetings  of  bishops  there.  The  palace  fell  into 
decay  under  the  last  Capetian  kings,  but  the  abbey, 
founded  by  St.  Clotilde  in  the  beginning  of  the  VI.  c.  and 
rebuilt  by  St.  Bathilde,  wife  of  Clovis  II.,  flourished  till 
the  great  Revolution^  and  counted  Gisela,  sister  of  Charle- 
magne, amongst  its  many  abbesses  of  royal  birth.  Little 
remains  of  it  now,  except  some  wood  carvings  in  the 
church,  and  some  reliquaries  containing  bones  of  St. 
Bathilde,  St.  Bertille,  &c.  When  Louis  XIV.  was  in- 
spired with  his  sudden  passion  for  Mile  de  Fontanges, 
amongst  the  benefits  heaped  upon  her  family,  he  made  her 
sister  abbess  of  Chelles,  a  dignity  usually  conferred  upon 
the  daughters  of  princes  or  dukes. 

"  6th  April,  1680.  Mme  de  Fontanges  is  made  duchesse  with 
20,000  crowns  pension  ;  she  received  congratulations  thereon,  to- 
day, in  her  bed.  The  king  has  been  publicly  there  ;  she  takes  her 
tabouret  to-morrow,  and  goes  to  pass  Eastertide  at  an  abbey  which 
the  king  has  given  to  one  of  her  sisters.  This  is  a  style  of  sepa- 
ration which  will  do  honor  to  the  severity  of  the  confessor.  There 
are  people  who  say  that  this  establishment  has  the  air  of  a  dismis- 
sal ;  in  truth,  I  do  not  believe  so,  time  will  tell  us.  At  present 
the  state  of  things  is  thus  :  Mme  de  Montespan  is  in  a  fury  ;  she 
wept  much  yesterday  ;  judge  then  of  the  martyrdom  suffered  by 
her  pride." — Mme  de  Se'vigne. 

To  this  abbey,  a  few  months  later,  her  health  and  power 
broken,  Mile  de  Fontanges  came  as  a  refuge. 

"7th  July,  1680.  Mme  de  Fontanges  has  left  for  Chelles. 
She  had  four  carriages  and  six,  her  own  had  eight  horses  ;  all  her 
sisters  were  with  her,  but  it  was  all  so  sad  that  it  was  piteous  ; 
the  fair  lady  losing  all  her  blood,  pale,  changed,  overcome  with 
grief,  despising  40,000  crowns  income  and  a  tabouret  which  she 
has,  and  longing  for  health  and  the  king's  heart,  which  she  has 
not.  I  do  not  think  there  ever  was  an  example  of  a  person  so 
fortunate  and  so  unfortunate. 


ME  A  UX  257 

"  ist  September,  1680.  We  heard  at  our  abbey  [of  Livry]  the 
triumphs,  the  trumpetings  and  the  music  of  Chelles  at  the  con- 
secration of  the  abbess.  It  is  said  that  the  fair  beauty  thought 
she  was  poisoned,  and  that  gave  her  a  right  to  have  guards  ;  she 
is  still  languishing,  but  so  full  of  her  grandeur  that  you  must 
imagine  something  precisely  contrary  to  that  little  violet  [La  Val- 
liere],  who  hid  herself  in  the  grass,  and  was  ashamed  of  being  a 
mistress,  a  mother,  and  a  duchesse  ;  that  will  never  be  the  model." 
— Mine  de  Sevigne'. 

Louise  Adelaide  de  Chartres,  daughter  of  the  Due 
d'Orle'ans  and  granddaughter  of  Louis  XIV.  and  Mme  de 
Montespan,  became  Abbess  of  Chelles  in  17 19.  Her 
grandmother,  Elizabeth  Charlotte,  writes — 

"  She  persisted  in  her  project  of  becoming  a  nun  ;'it  seems  to 
me  she  suits  the  world  better  ;  .  .  .  but  it  is  a  craze  that  has  taken 
rest  in  her  brain.  She  has  all  the  tastes  of  a  boy  ;  she  loves  dogs, 
horses,  riding  ;  all  day  long  she  is  handling  powder,  making  fuses 
or  other  fire-works  ;  she  has  a  pair  of  pistols,  with  which  she  is 
always  shooting.  She  has  no  fear  of  anything  in  the  world  ;  she 
cares  for  nothing  that  women  like  ;  she  does  not  even  take  care 
of  her  appearance.  This  is  my  reason  for  not  being  able  to  fanc)' 
that  she  will  make  a  good  nun." — Me'moires  de  JMadame. 

The  abbey  was  totally  destroyed  at  the  Revolution,  and 
the  tombs  of  Clotaire,  Bathilde,  and  the  numerous  prin- 
cesses who  had  reigned  as  abbesses  perished  with  it.  A 
few  statues  which  belonged  to  the  abbey  ornament  the 
parish  church. 

45  k.  Meaiix  (Hotel  du  Grand  Cerf;  des  Trois  Rois),  in 
the  flourishing  and  prosperous  pays  Meldois — a  vast  fruit 
and  vegetable  garden,  an  attractive  old  city,  worth  staying 
to  see.  The  Cathedral  is  seen  from  the  station,  rising 
above  the  trees  of  the  pleasant  public  walks.  It  was  begun 
in  the  XII.  c,  but  was  only  finished  in  the  XVI.  c.  On 
the  north-west  is  a  massive  square  tower.  The  interior, 
of  the  XV.  c.  and  XVI.  c,  is  exceedingly  beautiful  and 


258 


DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 


harmonious ;  faultless  as  far  as  it  reaches,  it  impresses 
more  than  many  grander  buildings. 

In  the  right  aisle  of  the  choir  is  the  monument  by 
Buixiel  (1822)  of  Bossuet,  the  most  illustrious  bishop  of 
Meaux ;  he  is  buried  at  the  entrance  to  the  sacristy. 

"  He  was  a  man  to  whom  honor,  virtue,  uprightness  were  as 
inseparable  as  his  knowledge  and  vast  learning.  His  place  as 
tutor  of  Monseigneur  had  made  him  familiarly  acquainted  with 
the  king,  who  more  than  once  consulted  him  concerning  his 
scruples.  Bossuet  often  spoke  to  him  about  his  mode  of  life 
with  a  freedom  worthy  of  the  first  ages  and  the  first  bishops  of 
the  Church.  More  than  once  he  checked  the  course  of  disorder  ; 
he  ventured  to  pursue  the  king,  who  escaped  from  him.  He 
made  at  last  all  bad  conduct  cease,  and  he  succeeded  in  crown- 
ing this  great  work  by  the  last  blows  that  drove  away  from  the 
court  for  ever  Mme  de  Montespan.'" — St.  Simon,''  M^moires." 

In  the  left  choir  aisle  is  the  tomb  of  Philippe  de  Cas- 
tile, son  of  the  Seigneur  de  Chenoise,  1627,  with  his 
kneeling  figure;  and,  opposite,  the  beautiful  flamboyant 
portal  called  Porte  Maugarni. 

Entered  to  the  left  of  the  cathedral  facade  is  the 
Eveche^  of  the  XV.  c.  and  XVI.  c.  Visitors  are  admitted 
by  the  portress  to  the  charming  old-fashioned  garden  be- 
hind the  palace,  designed  by  Lenotre,  covered  with  snow- 
drops in  early  spring.  It  is  backed  by  a  sunny  terrace 
upon  the  walls,  ending  in  a  pavilion,  where  Bossuet  spent 
much  of  his  time,  but  which  is  no  longer  furnished.  Here 
were  composed  many  of  those  sermons  (which  began  in 
improvisations  at  the  Hotel  de  Rambouillet)  in  which, 
with  thorough  knowledge  and  use  of  the  Fathers,  and  in 
kingly  splendor  of  style,  the  great  bishop  chiefly  aimed  at 
upholding  the  majesty  of  the  Church  doctrines,  and  making 
of  theological  dogma  a  living  reality.  He  is,  however,  al- 
most better  known  by  his  funeral  orations  than  by  his 


MEA  UX 


259 


sermons,  though  they  are  more  artificial,  and  their  high- 
sounding  phrases  would  now  be  unendurable. 

"The  Eveche  is  full  of  historic  associations,  besides  being 
very  curious  in  itself.  Here  have  slept  many  noteworthy  person- 
ages— Louis  XVI.  and  Marie  Antoinette,  on  their  sad  return 
from  Varennes,  June  24,  1791  ;  Napoleon  in  1814;  Charles  X.  in 


LA   MAITRISE,    MEAUX. 

1828  ;  later,  General  Moltke  in  1870,  who  said  on  that  occasion, 
'In  three  days,  or  a  week  at  most,  we  shall  be  in  Paris,' not 
counting  on  the  possibilities  of  a  siege." — Holidays  in  Eastern 
France. 

Behind  the  cathedral  is  the  curious  building,  of  the 
XIII.  c,  called  La  Mditrise.  The  bridges  across  the 
Marne  are  covered  with  mills,  some  of  them  very  old  and 
picturesque. 


XIV. 

FONTAINEBLEA  U. 

THE  Chemin  de  Fer  de  Lyon  (for  Fontainebleau) 
starts  from  the  Boulevard  Mazas.     It  passes — 

I  k.  (right),  the  village  of  Conjlafis,  where  the  libertine 
archbishop  of  Paris,  Harlay  de  Champvalon,  built  a  cha- 
teau^ in  which  he  died  August  6,  1695,  when  Mme  de 
Coulanges  wrote  to  Mme  de  Sevigne :  "  II  s'agit  mainte- 
nant  de  frouver  quelqu'un  qui  se  charge  de  I'oraison  fune- 
bre.  On  pretend  qu'il  n'y  a  que  deux  petites  bagatelles 
qui  rendent  cet  ouvrage  difficile:  la  vie  et  la  mort."  The 
chateau  continued  to  be  the  residence  of  the  archbishops 
before  and  after  the  Revolution,  till  a  service  at  St.  Ger- 
main I'Auxerrois  (Feb.  13,  183 1),  in  honor  of  the  Due  de 
Berry,  led  to  an  insurrection  in  which  it  was  sacked.  The 
buildings  are  now  occupied  by  a  convent. 

5  k.  Char e?iton-le- Pont,  a  position  which  has  often 
proved  of  great  military  importance  in  defending  or  attack- 
ing Paris.  Here  was  the  famous  Te^nple  des  Protestants, 
authorized  by  Henri  IV.,  capable  of  containing  14,000 
persons,  where  the  Calvinists  held  their  synods ;  it  per- 
ished at  the  revocation  of  the  edict  of  Nantes.  A  little 
hospital  of  twelve  beds,  founded  by  Se'bastien  Leblanc  in 
1642,  was  the  origin  of  the  enormous  Hospital  and  Lima- 
tic  Asylum  of  Charenton — the  Bedlam  of  France. 


r  ABB  A  YE  261 

7  k.  Maisons-Alfort. — Maisons  is  remarkable  for  its 
magnificent  Ecole  veterinaire,  founded  1766.  There  is  a 
tramway  hence  to  (4/^.)  Creteuil,  where  Odette  de  Champ- 
divers,  mistress  of  Charles  VI.,  had  a  manor.  The  church 
is  partly  of  the  XIII.  c,  and  has  a  fine  west  tower  serving 
as  a  porch. 

1^  k.  Villeneuve-St.- Georges, — Above  the  village  is  seen 
the  Chateau  de  Beauregard^  which  belonged  to  Claude  le 
Pelletier,  Controller  of  Finances  after  Colbert. 

\2>k.  Mojitgeron. — At  Cros?te,  1  k.  distant,  Boileau  was 
born,  at  No.  3,  Rue  Simon,  which  is  inscribed — 

"  Ici  naquit  Boileau,  ce  maitre  en  I'art  d'ecrire. 
II  arma  la  raison  des  traits  de  la  satire, 
Et,  dormant  le  precepte  et  I'exemple  a  la  fois, 
Du  gout  il  etablit  et  pratiqua  les  lois." 

2^k.  east  is  Yeres^  where  the  chateau  belonged  in  the 
XIV.  c.  to  the  family  of  Courtena}',  then  to  that  of  Bude'. 
To  the  latter  belonged  Guillaume  Bude,  the  learned  secre- 
tary of  Charles  VIII.,  of  whose  house  the  stately  entrance, 
flanked  by  round  brick  towers,  remains  in  the  village.  A 
spring,  which  was  formerly  in  his  garden,  is  called  the  Fon- 
taine Bude'^  and  bears  a  poetical  inscription. 

At  V  Abb  aye  (i  >^.)  are  considerable  remains  of  the 
Benedictine  Abbey,  founded  in  1132  by  the  Comtesse 
d'Etampes,  sister  of  Louis  le  Gros.  Marie  de  Pisseleu, 
sister  of  the  famous  Anne,  Comtesse  d'Etampes,  became 
its  abbess  in  the  XV.  c.  The  buildings  are  now  occupied 
by  a  woolen  factory.  A  beautiful  XV.  c.  portal  remains. 
Few  fragments  exist  of  the  convent  of  Camaldules,  founded 
by  the  Due  d'Angouleme,  bastard  of  Charles  IX.,  on  the 
hill  above  the  village.  2  k.  distant  is  the  ancient  Chateau 
de  la  Grange,  a  very  handsome  brick  and  stone  building, 
flanked  by  five  towers,  of  the  time   of  Henri  IV.     It  be- 


262  ^A  YS  NEAR   PARIS 

longed  to  the  widow  of  Hem  i  dc  Guise,  murdered  by 
Henri  HI.,  and  afterwards  to  Louis  XHI.  (under  whom 
it  was  called  Grange-le-Roi) ;  then  to  the  Mare'chal  de  Saxe, 
the  victor  of  Fontenoy.  The  ivy  on  the  fa9ade  w^as  planted 
by  Fox,  when  he  came  here  to  visit  La  Fayette,  after  the 
peace  of  Amiens. 

26  k,  Brimoy. — The  old  chateau  of  Frangois  de  la 
Rochefoucauld,  celebrated  in  the  wars  of  the  Fronde,  was 
rebuilt  in  1722  by  the  financier  Paris  de  Montmartel, 
whose  son  Jean  Paris,  Marquis  de  Brunoy,  squandered 
his  large  fortune  in  eccentricities. 

"At  the  death  of  his  father,  he  wished  everything  around 
him,  things  as  well  as  people,  to  be  in  mourning.  His  domestics 
had  to  dress  in  black  serge,  every  inhabitant  received  six  ells  of 
the  same  stuff,  and  his  father's  statues  were  draped  with  it.  An 
immense  piece  of  crape  enveloped  the  chateau.  The  trees  bore 
weepers ;  the  fountains  and  cascades  were  filled  with  black 
water  ;  floods  of  ink  were  thrown  into  the  river  and  canal  ;  the 
church  was  painted  black  ;  the  cows,  the  sheep,  the  hens  were 
dyed  black." — Louis  Barron,   "  Les  Environs  de  Paris.'' 

After  the  ruin  of  the  marquis,  Brunoy  was  bought  by 
Monsieur,  brother  of  Louis  XVL  Chateau  and  park  were 
alike  destroyed  at  the  Revolution.  In  18 15,  after  the 
battle  of  Waterloo,  Louis  XVIII.  conferred  the  title  of 
Marquis  de  Brunoy  upon  the  Duke  of  Wellington. 

45  k.  Mehin  (Hotel  du  Grand-Moiiarqice ;  dii  Coj?t- 
merce),  prettily  situated  on  the  Seine,  was  a  favorite  resi- 
dence of  the  kings  of  France  from  the  XI.  c.  Their  castle, 
at  the  east  end  of  the  island  in  the  Seine  w^as  the  place 
where  Philippe  I.  died  j  where  St.  Louis  celebrated  the 
marriage  of  his  daughter  Isabelle  with  Thibaut  of  Navarre, 
and  which  was  besieged  by  Henry  V.  of  England  in 
1420. 


MEL  UN 


263 


The  chateau  was  inhabited  by  Louis  XIV.  as  a  boy, 
but  was  totally  demolished  in  1740.  The  market-place 
has  a  large  fountain.  Of  the  churches  which  remain,  St. 
Aspais,  in  the  main  street,  with  good  stained  glass,  is 
XV.  c.  ;  Notre  Da7ne,  near  the  river,  was  founded  in  the 
X.  c,  and  has  two  romanesque  w-est  towers.  At  the 
east  end  of  the  town  is  the  Chateau  de  Vaux-le-Phiy. 
Jacques  Amyot,  the  learned  bishop  of  Auxerre,  was  a 
native  of  Melun. 


STREET  AT   MELUN. 


6  k,  north-east,  by  a  walk  or  drive  across  a  dreary  up- 
land plain,  is  the  noble  Chateau  de  Vaux-Praslin,  built  by 
Fouquet,  the  famous  "  surintendant  de  finances "  under 
Cardinal  Mazarin,  with  magnificent  gardens  laid  out  by 
Lenotre,  and  internal  decorations  by  Mignard  and  Charles 
Lebrun. 

"The  palace  and  gardens  of  Vaux  cost  eighteen  millions,  or, 
in  the  value  of  to-day,  about  thirty-five  ;  Fouquet  built  the  palace 
twice,  and  bought  three  hamlets,   the  ground  of  which  was  en- 


264 


DAYS  NEAR  PARIS 


closed  in  the  immense  gardens,  partly  planted  by  Lenotre,  and 
then  regarded  as  the  most  beautiful  in  Europe.  The  fountains 
of  Vaux,  which  since  have  seemed  less  than  mediocre  after  those 
of  Versailles,  Marly,  and  St.  Cloud,  were  prodigies  ;  but  yet 
beautiful  as  was  the  house,  the  expenditure  of  eighteen  millions, 
the  vouchers  for  which  still  exist,  proves  that  he  was  served  with 
as  little  economy  as  he  served  the  king  with.  It  is  true  that  Saint 
Germain  and  Fontainebleau,  the  only  houses  of  pleasure  occupied 
by  the  king,  were  far  from  approaching  the  beauty  of  Vaux  ; 
Louis  XIV.  felt  it  and  was  annoyed.  In  every  part  of  the  house 
the   arms  and  device  of  Fouquet  are  displayed  ;  a  squirrel  with 


13.0^)3 


''■'?:,»*•••*'  '^j^.,.. 


CHATEAU   DE  VAUX-PRASLIN. 


the  motto,  Quo  non  ascendant?  'Whither  can  I  not  climb?'  The 
king  asked  for  an  explanation  ;  the  ambitious  tone  of  the  devicb 
did  not  serve  to  appease  the  monarch.  The  courtiers  remarked 
that  the  squirrel  was  everywhere  depicted  as  pursued  by  a  snake, 
which  is  in  the  arms  of  Colbert.  The  fete  was  superior  to  those 
that  Cardinal  Mazarin  had  given,  not  only  in  splendor,  but  in 
taste,  the  Le  Fdcheux  of  Moliere  was  represented  there  for  the 
first  time:  Pelisson  wrote  the  prologue,  whic!  was  admired. 
Public  amusements  conceal  or  prepare  so  often  at  court  private 
disasters  that,  without  the  queen  mother,  the  Superintendent  and 
Pelisson  would  have  been  arrested  at  Vaux  on  the  day  of  the 
ik,\&r— Voltaire,  "  Siecle  de  Louis  XI V." 


PON TA IXEBLEA  V  265 

"he  glories  of  the  chateau  are  celebrated  in  the  "  Songe 
de  \ux  "'  of  La  Fontaine  : — 

Tout  combattit  a  Vaux  pour  le  plaisir  du  roi  : 
La  musique,  les  eaux,  les  lustres,  les  etoiles." 

Yet  eighteen  days  after  his  fete,  Fouquet  was  arrested  at 
Nares,  and  imprisoned  for  life  at  Pignerol  by  order  of  the 
kini  The  Due  de  Praslin,  minister  of  Louis  XIV.,  pur- 
chaid  the  property,  and  it  will  ever  be  thought  of  in  con- 
necon  with  the  murder  of  the  unhappy  Duchesse  de 
Prain,  daughter  of  Mare'chal  Sebastiani,  which  occurred 
in  iris  in  1847. 

"he  chateau  rises  nobly  from  its  wide  moat,  surrounded 
by  \st  terraces.  The  Cour  d^ Hon7ieur  has  a  vast  avant- 
^^a;  lined  by  les  communs.  It  may  be  all  seen  through  the 
grill  which  separates  it  from  the  road,  inside  which  the 
sugr-refiner,  who  has  bought  the  chateau  from  its  aristo- 
crat and  liberal  owners,  allows  no  visitors. 

k.  west  of  Melun,  near  Da7?imarie-L's-Lys,  which  has 
a  chrch  dating  partly  from  the  XII.  c,  are  the  very 
pictresque  ruins  of  the  XIII.  c.  Abbaye  du  Lys. 

t  k.  Bois-le-Roi.  — A  little  east  of  this,  beyond  the 
curv  of  the  Seine,  is  the  little  village  of  Fontaifie-le-Port^ 
neawhich  was  the  famous  abbey  of  Barbeaux,  founded  by 
Lou  le  Jeune  in  1147.  The  church,  which  contained  the 
fine  omb  of  Louis  VII.,  was  demolished  at  the  Revolu- 
tion, but  the  body  of  the  king,  wrapped  in  its  silken 
shrod,  was  concealed  by  a  cure,  and  removed  to  St.  Denis 
in  1^:7. 

3  k.   Fontamebleau. 

Te  town  is  '^k.  from  the  station;  omnibus,  30c.  Hotels — 
de  Fmce  et  d'Angleterre,  facing  the  chateau  ;  de  V Europe,  close  by 
and  ery  good  ;  de  Londres ;  Bristol ;  V Aigle  JVoir.  Carriages — 
two  orses,  4  f.  first  hour,  3  f.  second  hour ;  one  horse,  3  f.  first 


266 


DA  YS  NEAR  PARIS 


hour,    2   f.   second   hour.      By   the   day:  two  horses,   20   f.,   one 
horse,  10  f. 

The  dull  town  is  much  frequented  in  the  summer  for 
the  sake  of  its  park  and  chateau — 

"  Chasteau  qui  s'appelle 
Du  gracieux  surnoin  d'une  fontaine  belle." 

Louis  le  Jeune,  who  dated  his  acts  of  1 137  and  1 141  '•  apud 
fontem  Bleaudi,"  was  probably  the  first  king  of  France 


'^•"^^^^t^^^^iff^^^^^^s^ss? 


ABBAYE   DU   LYS. 


who  lived  here ;  St.  Louis  could  still  sign  his  ordinances 
"  Donne  en  nos  deserts  de  Fontainebleau,"  though,  after  a 
fashion,  the  kings  of  France  continued  to  make  the  place 
a  residence.  Philippe  le  Bel,  Louis  (X.)  le  Hutin, 
Philippe  V.  and  Charles  IV.  were  all  born  in  the  palace, 
and  there  Philippe  le  Bel  died  (as  was  believed,  from  the 
Templars'  curse),  in  November,  1328 — "  His  face  was  still 
fair  when  it  began  to  pale  from  some  nameless  disease, 
for  he  had  neither  fever  nor  visible  malady."  Philippe  V. 
also  died  at  Fontainebleau. 


FONTAINEBLEA  U  267 

But  the  golden  age  of  Fontainebleau  came  with  the 
Renaissance  and  Francois  L,  who  wished  to  make  Fon- 
tainebleau the  most  glorious  palace  in  the  world.  "  The 
Escurial !  "  says  Brantome,  "what  of  that?  See  how  long 
it  was  of  building !  Good  workmen  like  to  be  quick 
finished.  With  our  king  it  was  otherwise.  Take  Fontaine- 
bleau and  Chambord.  When  they  were  projected,  when 
once  the  plumb-line,  and  the  compass,  and  the  square,  and 
the  hammer  were  on  the  spot,  then  in  a  few  years  we  saw 
the  Court  in  residence  there." 

II  Rosso  was  first  (1531)  employed  to  carry  out  the 
ideas  of  Francois  I.  as  to  painting,  and  then  Sebastian 
Serlio  was  summoned  from  Bologna  in  1541  to  fill  the  place 
of  ^'  surintendant  des  bastiments  et  architecte  de  Fontaine- 
bleau." II  Rosso — Giovambattista — had  been  a  Florentine 
pupil  of  Michelangelo,  but  refused  to  follow  any  master, 
having,  as  Vasari  says,  "a  certain  inkling  of  his  own.*' 
Francois  I.  was  delighted  with  him  at  first,  and  made  him 
head  of  all  the  Italian  colony  at  Fontainebleau,  where  he 
was  known  as  ''  Maitre  Roux."  But  in  two  years  the  kins^ 
was  longing  to  patronize  some  other  genius,  and  implored 
Giulio  Romano,  then  engaged  on  the  Palazzo  del  Te  at 
Mantua,  to  come  to  him.  The  great  master  refused  to 
come  himself,  but  in  his  place  sent  the  Bolognese  Prima- 
ticcio,  who  became  known  in  France  as  Le  Primatice. 
The  new-comer  excited  the  furious  jealousy  of  II  Rosso, 
whom  he  supplanted  in  favor  and  popularit}^,  and  who, 
after  growing  daily  more  morose,  took  poison  in  1541. 
Then  Primaticcio,  who,  to  humor  his  rival,  had  been  sent 
into  honorable  exile  (on  plea  of  collecting  antiquities  at 
Rome),  was  summoned  back,  and  destroyed  most  of  II 
Rosso's  frescoes,  replacing  them  by  his  own.  Those  that 
remain  are  now  painted  over,  and  no  works  of  II  Rosso 


268  ^A  YS  NEAR  PARIS 

are  still  in  existence  (unless  in  engravings)  except  some  of 
his  frescoes  at  Florence. 

With  the  Italian  style  of  buildings  and  decorations,  the 
Italian  system  of  a  Court  adorned  by  ladies  was  first 
introduced  here  under  Frangois  I.,  and  soon  became  a 
necessity. 

"  Bien  sou  vent  ay-je  veu  nos  roys  aller  aux  champs,  aux 
villes  et  ailleurs,  y  demeurer  et  s'esbattre  quelques  jours,  et  n'y 
mener  point  les  dames  ;  mais  nous  estions  si  esbahis,  si  perdus, 
si  faschez,  que  pour  huict  jours  que  nous  faisions  de  sejour 
separez  d'elles  et  de  leurs  beaux  yeux,  ils  nous  paroissoient  un 
an  et  toujours  a  souhaitter  :  '  Quand  serons-nous  a  la  court?' 
n'appelant  la  court  bien  souvent  la  ou  estoit  le  roy,  mais  ou 
estoient  la  reyne  et  les  dames." — Brantorne. 

Under  Fran9ois  I.,  his  beautiful  mistress,  the  Duchesse 
d'Etampes — "la  plus  belle  des  savantes,  et  la  plus  savante 
des  belles,"  directed  all  the  fetes.  In  this  she  was  suc- 
ceeded, under  Henri  II.,  by  Diane  de  Poitiers,  whose 
monogram,  interwoven  with  that  of  the  king,  appears  in  all 
the  buildings  of  his  time,  and  who  is  represented  as  a 
goddess  (Diana)  in  the  paintings  of  Primaticcio. 

Under  Francois  II.,  in  1560,  by  the  advice  of  the 
queen-mother,  an  assembly  of  notables  was  summoned  at 
Fontainebleau  ;  and  here,  accompanied  by  her  150  beau- 
tiful maids  of  honor,  Catherine  de  Medicis  received  the 
embassy  of  the  catholic  sovereigns  sent  to  demand  the 
execution  of  the  articles  of  the  Council  of  Trent,  and  call- 
ing for  fresh  persecution  of  the  reformers. 

Much  as  his  predecessors  had  accomplished,  Henri 
IV.  did  more  for  the  embellishment  of  Fontainebleau, 
where  the  monogram  of  his  mistress,  Gabrielle  d'Estrees, 
is  frequently  seen  mingled  with  that  of  his  wife,  Marie  de 
Medicis.  All  the  Bourbon  kings  had  a  passion  for  hunt- 
ing, for  which  Fontainebleau  afforded  especial  facilities. 


CHATEAU  DE   FOXTAINEBLEAU  269 

"The  king  thought  only  of  the  pleasures  of  the  chase.  It 
seemed  as  if  the  courtiers  were  permitting  themselves  an  epi- 
gram, when  they  were  heard  saying  seriously,  on  the  days  that 
Louis  XV.  was  not  hunting,  '  The  king  is  doing  nothing  to-day.'  " 
— Mnie  Camp  an. 

"  The  same  day,  his  Majesty,  after  having  been  a-hawking, 
had  a  wolf-hunt,  and  ended  the  day  by  a  third  hunt  of  a  stag,  that 
lasted  till  night,  in  spite  of  three  or  four  hours'  rain.  They  were 
then  six  leagues  from  the  start.  The  king  arrived  a  little  tired. 
This  is  what  princes  call  amusement ;  about  tastes  and  pleasures 
there  is  no  need  to  dispute." — Stilly. 

It  was  at  Fontainebleau  that  Louis  XIII.  was  born, 
and  that  the  Marechal  de  Biron  was  arrested.  Louis  XIII. 
only  lived  here  occasionally.  In  the  early  reign  of  Louis 
XIV.  the  palace  was  lent  to  Christina,  of  Sweden,  who 
had  abdicated  her  throne. 

It  was  in  one  of  the  private  apartments,  occupying  the 

site  of  the  ancient  Galerie  des  Cerfs,  now  destroyed,  that 

she  ordered  the  execution  of  her  chief  equerry,   Monal- 

deschi,  whom  she  had  convicted  of  treason.     She  listened 

patiently  to  his  excuses,  but  was  utterly  unmoved  by  them 

and  his   entreaties  for  mercy.       She  provided  a  priest  to 

confess  him,  after  which  he  was  slowly  butchered  by  blows 

with  a  sword  on  the  head  and  face,  as  he  dragged  himself 

along  the  floor,  his   body  being  defended  by  a  coat  of 

mail.^ 

*'  Of  whatever  fault  Monaldeschi  was  guilty  towards  the  philo- 
sophic queen,  she  ought,  as  she  had  renounced  royalty,  have 
asked  for  justice,  not  done  it.  The  case  was  not  that  of  a  queen 
punishing  a  subject,  but  of  a  woman  terminating  an  affair  of  gal- 
lantry by  a  murder ;  the  case  of  one  Italian  procuring  the  assas- 
sination of  another  by  order  of  a  Swedish  woman  in  a  palace  of 
the  King  of  France.  No  one  ought  to  be  put  to  death  but  by  the 
law  ;  Christina,  in  Sweden,  would  not  have  had  the  right  to  as- 
sassinate any  one,  and  certainly  what  would  have  been  a  crime  at 

»  See  the  terrible  narrative  of  Pere  Lebel  Mathurin  de  Fontainebleau, 
called  in  to  confess  Monaldeschi. 


270 


DA  YS  NEAR  PARIS 


Stockholm  was  not  permissible  at  Fontainebleau.  Those  who 
have  justified  this  deed  deserve  to  serve  such  masters.  This 
shame  and  cruelty  tarnished  the  philosophy  that  had  made  Chris- 
tina quit  a  throne.  She  would  have  been  punished  in  England, 
and  every  country  where  law  reigns,  but  France  closed  her  eyes 
to  this  assault  on  the  authorit)''  of  the  king,  the  right  of  nations 
and  humanity." — Voltaire,  "  Siecle  de  Louis  XIV.'' 

Even  after  the  creation  of  the  palaces  of  Versailles 
and  Marly,  Louis  XIV.  continued  to  make  an  annual 
"voyage  de  Fontainebleau."  He  compelled  his  whole 
Court  to  follow  him ;  if  any  of  his  family  were  ill,  and  un- 
able to  travel  by  road,  he  made  them  come  by  water ;  for 
himself,  he  slept  on  the  way,  either  at  the  house  of  the 
Due  d'Antin  (son  of  Mme  de  Montespan)  or  of  the  Mare- 
chal  de  Villeroy.  It  was  here  that  the  Grand  Dauphin 
was  born,  in  1661.  Here,  also,  it  was  that  Mme  de  Main- 
tenon  first  appeared  at  the  councils^,  and  that  the  king 
publicly  asked  her  advice  as  to  whether  he  should  accept 
the  throne  of  Spain  for  the  Due  d'Anjou.  Here,  also,  in 
1685,  he  signed  the  revocation  of  the  edict  of  Nantes. 
The  great  Conde  died  in  the  palace.  Louis  XV.  was  mar- 
ried here  to  Marie  Leczinska  in  1725  ;  and  here  the  Dau- 
phin, his  son,  died  in  1765.  Louis  XVI.  delighted  in  Fon- 
tainebleau for  its  hunting  facilities. 

After  the  Revolution,  Napoleon  I.  restored  the  chateau 
and  prepared  it  for  Pius  VII.,  who  came  to  France  to 
crown  him,  and  was  here  (January  25,  18 13)  induced  to 
sign  the  famous  Concordat  de  Fontainebleau,  by  which  he 
abjured  his  temporal  sovereignty. 

The  chateau  which  witnessed  the  abdication  of  the 
Pope,  also  saw  that  of  Napoleon  I.,  who  made  his  touch- 
ing farewell  to  the  soldiers  of  the  Vieille-Garde  in  the 
Cour  du  Cheval-Blanc,  before  setting  off  for  Elba. 

"The  guard  itself  was  at  Fontainebleau.     He  wished  to  bid  it 


CHATEAU  DE   FONTAINEBLEAU  27 1 

adieu.  He  ordered  it  to  be  drawn  up  in  a  circle  around  him  in  the 
court  of  the  chateau,  and  then,  in  presence  of  his  old  soldiers, 
who  were  deeply  moved,  he  pronounced  the  following  words  : 
'  Soldiers,  my  old  companions  in  arms,  whom  I  have  alwa)^s 
found  treading  the  path  of  honor,  we  must  at  last  part.  I  could 
have  remained  longer  among  you,  but  it  would  have  prolonged  a 
cruel  strife,  added,  perhaps,  civil  war  to  foreign  war,  and  I 
could  not  resolve  to  longer  lacerate  the  breast  of  France.  Enjoy 
the  repose  which  you  have  so  justly  earned,  and  be  happ)^  As 
for  me,  do  not  sorrow  for  me.  There  still  remains  a  mission  for 
me,  and  it  is  to  accomplish  it  that  I  consent  to  live  ;  namely,  to 
tell  to  posterity  the  great  deeds  we  have  done  together.  I  would 
gladly  clasp  you  all  in  my  arms  ;  but  let  me  embrace  that  flag 
which  represents  you.  .  .  .'  Then,  drawing  towards  him  Gen- 
eral Petit,  who  bore  the  flag  of  the  old  guard,  and  who  was  the 
complete  model  of  modest  heroism,  he  pressed  to  his  bosom  the 
flag  and  the  general,  in  the  midst  of  the  cries  and  tears  of  those 
present  ;  he  then  flung  himself  into  the  depths  of  his  carriage, 
his  eyes  moist,  and  softening  even  the  very  commissioners 
charged  to  accompany  him." — Thiers,  ''  V Empire^ 

The  Cour  du  Cheval-Blanc^  the  largest  of  the  five  courts 
of  the  palace,  took  its  name  from  a  plaster  copy  of  the 
horse  of  Marcus  Aurelius  at  Rome,  destroyed  1626.  Re- 
cently it  has  been  called  the  Cou}'  dcs  Adieux,  on  account 
of  the  farewell  of  Napoleon  I.  in  18 14.  It  was  once  sur- 
rounded by  buildings  on  all  sides ;  one  was  removed  in 
1810,  and  replaced  by  a  grille.  The  principal  facade  is 
composed  of  five  pavilions  with  high  roofs,  united  by 
buildings  two  stories  high.  The  beautiful  twisted  staircase 
in  front  of  the  central  pavilion  was  executed  by  Lemercier 
for  Louis  XIIL,  and  replaces  a  staircase  by  Philibert  De- 
lorme.  Facing  this  pavilion,  the  mass  of  buildings  on  the 
right  is  the  Aile  Neuve  of  Louis  XV.,  built  on  the  site  of 
the  Galerie  d'Ulysse,  to  the  destruction  of  the  precious 
works  of  Primaticcio  and  Niccolo  dell'  Abbate,  with  which 
it  was  adorned.  Below  the  last  pavilion,  near  the  grille, 
was  the  Grotte  du  Jardin-des-Pins,  where   James  V.    of 


272 


DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 


Scotland,  coming  over  to  marry  Magdalen  of  France, 
daughter  of  Francois  I.,  watched  her  bathing  with  her 
ladies,  by  the  aid  of  a  mirror.  In  the  left  angle  is  the 
Jeu  de  Paume,  occupying  the  site  of  the  Galerie  de  Chev- 
reuils,  destroyed  by  fire.  Beginning  at  this  corner  of  the 
facade,  the  Pavilions  de  VHorloge  and  des  Amies  stand  on 
either  side  of  the  Chapelle  de  la  Sai?iie-Trmite.  The  cen- 
tral is  called  the  Pavilion  des  Peintures^  because  Frangois 


CHATEAU    DE    FONTAINEBLEAU. 


I.  collected  the  works  of  the  great  Italian  masters  there  ; 
the  fifth  at  the  right  corner  is  the  Pavilion  des  Peines,  built 
by  Catherine  de  Medicis  and  Anne  of  Austria. 

To  the  west  of  the  Cour  du  Cheval-Blanc,  and  commu- 
nicating with  it,  is  the  Cour  de  la  Po?itai?ie,  the  main  front 
of  which  is  formed  by  the  Galerie  de  Francois  I.  This 
faces  the  great  tank,  into  which  Gaston  d'Orleans,  at  eight 
years  old,  caused  one  of  the  courtiers  to  be  thrown,  whom 


CHATEAU  DE  FONTAINEBLEAU 


273 


he  considered  to  have  spoken  to  him  disrespectfully.  One 
side  of  the  Cour  de  la  Fontaine,  that  towards  the  Jardin 
Anglais,  is  terminated  by  a  pavilion  of  the  time  of  Louis 
XV.  ;  the  other,  formerly  decorated  with  statues,  is  at- 
tributed to  Serlio.  The  fountain  from  which  the  court 
takes  its  name  has  been  often  changed ;  a  poor  work  by 
Petitot  now  replaces  the  grand  designs  of  the  time  of  Fran- 
gois  I.  and  Henri  IV.  Beyond  this  court  we  find  (on  the 
left)  tho.  Porte  Doree,  which  faces  the  Chaicssee  de  Maiiitenoii^ 
between  the  "Etang"  and  Parterre;  it  was  built  under 
Francois  I.,  and  decorated  by  Primaticcio  with  paintings, 
restored  in  1835.  It  was  by  this  entrance  that  Charles  V. 
arrived  at  the  palace  in  1539. 

The  Porte  Doree  leads  into  the  Cour  Ovale  (formerly 
du  Doiijoji)  surrounded  by  buildings  which  date  from  St. 
Louis,  though  so  completely  altered  that  the  only  appar- 
ent remnant  of  the  feudal  fortress  is  the  tourelle  attached 
to  the  Pavilion  St.  Louis  at  the  bottom  of  the  court.  The 
noble  facade  on  the  right,  in  the  two  ranges  of  arches,  was 
mostly  built  by  Francois  I.,  and  finished  by  Henri  IV.  \ 
the  beautiful  peristyle  is  attributed  to  Serlio ;  the  capitals 
of  its  pilasters  and  columns  bear  the  "  F  "  of  Frangois  I. 
In  the  centre  of  the  south  side  is  the  Chapelle  St.  Saturnin. 
The  Pavilion  du  Dauphin^  beyond  this,  is  of  Henri  IV. 

"The  plan  is  as  irregular  as  anything  in  gothic  art,  and  there 
is  a  picturesque  abandon  about  the  whole  design  which  is  very 
charming  and  appropriate  to  the  situation  ;  but,  strange  to  say, 
the  effect  of  the  whole  is  marred  by  the  coarseness  and  vulgarity 
of  the  details." — Fcrgtisson. 

The  curious  Porte  Dauphine  (or  JBaptistcre),  which 
forms  the  approach  to  the  court  from  the  outer  side,  was 
built  by  Henri  IV.,  and  received  its  name  at  the  baptism 
of  Louis  XIII.,  which  took  place  beneath  it ;  it  bears  the 


274  D^4  yS  NEAR  PARIS 

initials  of  Henri  IV.  and  Marie  de  Medicis.  In  front  of 
the  Porte  Dauphine,  on  tlie  outer  side,  are  two  colossal 
Hermes,  flanking  the  entrance  to  the  Cour  des  Offices. 

The  interior  of  the  palace — open  daily  from  ii  to  4 — 
is  usually  shown  in  the  following  order.  Entering  by  the 
Escalier  de  Fer  a  Cheval,  in  the  Cour  du  Cheval-Blanc,  we 
turn  left  to— 

La  Chapelle  de  la  Sai?ite-Trinite,  built  (1529)  by  Fran- 
9ois  I.  in  the  place  of  the  Oratory  of  St.  Louis,  of  which  a 
Sfothic  arcade  remains  at  the  end  of  the  nave.  Henri  IV. 
was  urged  to  its  rich  decorations  by  the  ambassador  of 
Spain,  who  said,  when  shown  over  the  palace  — "' Cette 
maison  serait  plus  belle,  sire,  si  Dieu  y  e'tait  loge  aussi  bien 
que  Votre  Majeste." 

The  paintings  of  the  vault,  by  Freminef,  were  continued 
under  Louis  XIII.  ;  these  are  his  only  existing  works. 
The  altar,  by  Bordogni,  dates  from  Louis  XIII.  Here 
Marie  Louise  d'Orleans,  daughter  of  the  Re'gent  d'Or- 
ie'ans,  was  married  to  the  Prince  of  Asturias ;  here  Louis 
XV.  was  married  to  Marie  Leczinska  ;  and  here  the  last 
Due  d'Orleans,  son  of  Louis  Philippe,  was  married  to 
Princess  Helene  of  Mecklembourg. 

A  staircase  now  leads  to  the  first  floor,  and  we  enter — 

The  Appartements  de  NapoleoJi  I.,  all  furnished  in  the 
style  of  the  first  empire.  The  Cabinet  de  P Abdication  is  the 
place  where  he  resigned  his  power.  His  bedroom  (con- 
taining the  bed  of  Napoleon  I.,  the  cradle  of  the  King  of 
Rome,  and  a  cabmet  of  Marie  Louise)  leads  to  the  Salle 
dii  CoJiseil^  which  was  the  Salon  de  Famille  under  Louis 
Philippe ;  its  decorations  are  by  Boucher^  and  are  the  best 
of  the  period.  It  was  in  leaving  this  room  that  the  Mare- 
chal  de  Biron  was  arrested  under  Henri  IV.,  in  a  cabinet 
which  is  now  thrown  into  the  adjoining  Salle  du  Trbne. 


CHATEAU  BE   FONTAINEBLEAU  275 

(previously  the  bedroom  of  the  Bourbon  kings),  dating 
from  Charles  IX.,  but  decorated  under  Louis  XIII.  A 
fine  portrait  by  Philippe  de  Champaigne  represents  Louis 
XIII.  It  is  accompanied  by  his  device — Erit  haec  quoque 
cognita  7Jio?isfris,  in  allusion  to  his  vehemence  in  the  exter- 
mination of  heresy. 

The  adjoining  Boudoir  de  Marie  Antoinette  is  a  beauti- 
ful little  room,  painted  by  Barthelemy.  The  metal  work 
of  the  windows  is  said  to  have  been  wrought  by  Louis 
XVI.  himself,  who  had  his  workshop  here,  as  at  Versailles. 
The  richly-decorated  Chambre  a  Coucher  de  la  Reine  was 
inhabited  by  Marie  de  Medicis,  Marie  Therese,  Marie 
Antoinette,  Marie  Louise,  and  Marie  Amelie.  The  silk 
hangings  were  given  by  the  town  of  Lyons  to  Marie  An- 
toinette on  her  marriage.  The  Salon  de  Musiqiie  was  the 
Salon  du  Jeu  de  la  Reine,  under  Marie  Antoinette.  The 
AJicien  Salon  de  Clorinde,  or  dcs  Dames  d'' Honiteur^  is 
named  from  its  paintings  by  Dubois  from  the  Gerusalemme 
Liberata. 

The  Galerie  de  Diafie,  built  by  Napoleon  I.  and  Louis 
XVIII.,  replaces  the  famous  frescoed  gallery  of  Henri  IV. 
It  is  now  turned  into  a  library  for  the  use  of  the  town.  In 
the  centre  is  a  picture  of  Henri  IV.  on  horseback,  by 
Mauzaise.  The  Salle  des  Chasses  contain  pictures  of  hunt- 
ing scenes  under  Louis  XV. 

Entering  the  Grands  Appartements,  we  pass  through  the 
Salon  des  Tapisseries,  hung  with  fine  Flemish  tapestry,  to 
the  Salon  de  Fraticois  /.,  with  a  chimney-piece  of  his  date ; 
its  medallion,  representing  Mars  and  Venus,  is  attributed 
to  Primaticcio.  The  Salon  de  Louis  XIII.  is  the  room  in 
which  that  king  was  born,  in  1601  :  it  dates  from  Frangois 
I.,  and  was  decorated  by  Henri  IV.  Louis  XIII.  is  rep- 
resented  as  a  child,  riding  on  a  dolphin,  in   one  of  the 


276  DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 

paintings  of  the  ceiling.  Below,  let  into  the  panelling,  is 
the  first  glass  mirror  seen  in  France.  The  next  halls,  of 
the  Pavilion  St.  Louis,  were  decorated  under  Louis  Phi- 
lippe. 

The  halls  of  the  south  wing  begin  with  the  Salle  des 
Gardes,  the  chimney-piece  of  which  is  formed  by  fragments 
from  the  Salon  de  la  belle  Cheminee,  now  destroyed.  The 
Escalier  du  Roi,  built  by  Louis  XV.,  leads  to  the  room  oc- 
cupied by  the  Duchesse  d'Etampes,  now  called,  from  its 
decorations  by  Primaticcio,  La  Chambre  d^ Alexandre.  Five 
prettily-decorated  and  graceful  rooms  compose  the  Ap- 
partement  de  Mme  de  Mainte?ioJi. 

"  At  Fontainebleau  I  have  very  pretty  apartments,  subject  to 
the  same  cold  and  the  same  warmth,  and  having  a  window  of  the 
size  of  the  largest  arcades,  where  there  is  neither  shutter,  nor 
sash,  nor  screen,  because  the  symmetry  would  be  spoiled." — Mjue 
de  Mainteno7i  a  la  Princesse  des  Ursins,  2"^  Jtiillet,  1713. 

We  now  reach  the  glorious  Galerie  d^ HeJiri  LI.  (or  Salle 
des  Fetes),  built  by  Frangois  I.,  and  decorated  by  Henri 
II.  The  walnut-wood  ceiling  and  the  panelling  of  the 
walls  are  of  marvellous  richness.  Over  the  chimney  is  a 
gigantic  H,  and  the  initials  of  Henri  II.  are  constantly 
seen  interlaced  with  those  of  Diane  de  Poitiers. 

"  The  emblems  of  Diane,  the  bows,  the  arrows,  the  crescent 
above  all,  are  lavished  right  and  left  on  the  chimney-piece  ;  two 
pictures  represent  Diane  the  Huntress  and  Diane  in  the  Infernal 
Regions.  Finally,  in  the  last  arcade  to  the  right  is  painted  the 
portrait,  not  of  the  goddess,  but  of  the  mistress  herself.  The 
necessary  attributes  of  Venus  and  Cupid  are  added  to  this  figure 
after  nature." — Poisson. 

The  sixty  paintings  on  the  walls,  including  eight  large 
compositions,  were  executed  by  Niccolo  delP Ahbate,  and 
are  probably  the  finest  decorations  of  the  kind  existing  in 
France, 


CHATEAU  DE  FONTAtNE^LEAU  ij^y 

The  Chapelle  Haute  (especial  order  required)  was  built 
by  FranQois  I.,  1545.  Below  it  is  the  Chapelle  St.  Saturnifty 
built  by  Francois  I.  on  the  site,  and  according  to  the  pro- 
portions of  the  ancient  chapel  which  was  consecrated  by 
Thomas  a  Becket.  The  altar  used  by  Pius  VII.  in  his 
apartment  replaces  the  original  altar,  which  bore  the  de- 
vices of  Henry  11.  and  Diane  de  Poitiers.  From  the 
chapel  a  corridor  leads  to  the  hall  constructed  by  Louis 
Philippe  under  the  gallery  of  Henri  II.,  whence  by  the 
Porte  Doree  and  the  Cour  Ovale  we  re-enter  the  chateau 
by  the  Pavilion  St.  Louis. 

The  Galerie  de  Fra7i^ois  I.  is  a  splendid  work  of  the 
renaissance.  The  salamanders  and  other  devices  of  Fran- 
gois  I.  are  to  be  seen  on  all  sides.  The  original  paintings 
were  mostly  by  II  Rosso,  but  have  been  painted  over  ;  the 
Danae  is  attributed  to  Priinaticcio, 

"  At  the  request  of  the  Dauphin  Henri,  Maitre  Roux  had  rep- 
resented Diane  de  Poitiers  as  the  nymph  of  the  Fountain  Bleau. 
In  his  fresco  she  reclines,  a  Michelangelesque  creature,  among 
the  bulrushes,  where  she  is  discovered  by  Bleau,  the  hound.  An 
Amazon  rather  than  a  n)^mph,  with  a  grave,  stern  head,  mourn- 
fully bent,  she  presents  little  likeness  to  the  Dauphin's  faded  and 
exquisite  Diane.  But  Marie  d'Etampes,  the  mistress  of  the  king, 
was  furious  at  this  apotheosis  of  her  elderly  rival.  She  stormed, 
she  raged,  she  sulked,  till  Maitre  Claude  Badouin  was  employed 
to  paint  out  the  detested  fresco.  Fortunately  Rosso  had  time  to 
copy  it  first,  and  a  contemporary  engraving  by  Rene  Bo)'-vin  also 
attests  the  excellence  of  the  design.  A  Latin  inscription  records 
the  wrath  of  Rosso  :  '  O  Phidias,  O  Apelles,  could  your  age  con- 
ceive so  beautiful  a  thing  as  the  subject  of  this  painting? — Diana, 
resting  from  the  chase,  and  pouring  out  the  waters  of  the 
Fountain  Bleau,  which  Francis  I.,  most  puissant  king  of  the 
French,  father  of  the  fine  arts  and  of  letters,  left  unfinished  in 
his  own  palace  ! '  " — I\[ary  F.  Robinson,  "■  Magazine  of  Art,''  March, 
1885. 

The  rooms  usually  shown  last  are  those  formerly  in- 


27§  DA  YS  NEAR  PARI$ 

habited  by  Catherine  de  Medicis  and  Anne  of  Austria, 
and  which,  under  the  first  empire,  were  used  by  Pius  VII., 
under  Louis  PhiHppe,  by  the  Duke  and  Duchess  of  Or- 
leans. The  most  interesting  of  these  are  the  Chanibrea 
Coucher,  which  bears  the  oft-repeated  A  L  (the  chiffre  of 
Louis  XIII.  and  Anne  of  Austria),  and  in  which  Pius  VII. 
daily  said  mass,  and  the  Salon.,  with  its  fine  tapestry  after 
GiuHo  Romano.  The  Galerie  des  Assiettes,  adorned  with 
Sevres  china,  only  dates  from  Louis  Philippe.  Hence,  by 
a  gallery  in  the  Aile  Neuve,  hung  with  indifferent  pictures, 
we  may  visit  the  Salle  du  Theatre,  retaining  its  arrange- 
ments for  the  emperor,  empress,  and  court. 

At  the  corner  of  the  parterre,  near  the  railing  of  the 
park,  is  a  detached  building  of  Francois  I.,  called  the 
Pavilion  de  Sully,  from  the  residence  of  that  minister — 
"  surintendant  des  batiments  de  la  couronne."' 

The  Gardens,  as  seen  now,  are  mostly  as  they  were  re- 
arranged by  Lenotre  for  Louis  XIV.  The  most  frequented 
garden  is  the  Parterre,  entered  from  the  Place  du  Cheval- 
Blanc.  In  the  centre  of  the  Jar  din  Anglais  (entered 
through  the  Cour  de  la  Fontaine)  was  the  Fo?itaine  Bleau, 
which  is  supposed  by  some  to  have  given  a  name  to  the 
palace.  The  Eta?ig  has  a  pavilion  in  the  centre,  where 
the  Czar  Peter  got  drunk.  The  carp  in  the  pool,  overfed 
with  bread  by  visitors,  are  said  to  be,  some  of  them,  of  im- 
mense age.  John  Evelyn  mentions  the  carp  of  Fontaine- 
bleau,  "that  come  familiarly  to  hand." 

The  jfardin  de  /'  Orangerie,  on  the  north  of  the  palace, 
called  Jardin  des  Buis  under  Francois  I.,  contains  a  good 
renaissance  portal.  To  the  east  of  the  parterre  and  the 
town  is  the  park,  which  has  no  beauty,  but  harmonizes  well 
with  the  chateau. 

Visitors  should  not  fail  to  drive  in  the  Forest,  Zok,  in 


FOREST  OF  FONTAINEBLEAV  27^ 

Circuit,  and,  if  they  return   late,  may  look  out  for  its  black 
huntsman — "  le  grand  veneur. '^ 

"  The  question  is  still  asked,  of  what  nature  was  the  spectre 
seen  so  often  and  by  so  man}^  eyes  in  the  forest  of  Fontainebleau  ? 
It  was  a  phantom  surrounded  by  a  pack  of  dogs,  which  were 
heard  and  seen  at  a  distance,  but  it  disappeared  when  any  one 
approached." — Sully. 

The  forest  was  a  favorite  hunting-ground  of  the  kings 
of  France  to  a  late  period.  It  was  here  that  the  Marquis 
de  Tourzel,  Grand  Provost  of  France,  husband  of  the  gov- 
erness of  the  royal  children,  fractured  his  skull,  his  horse 
bolting  against  a  tree,  when  hunting  with  Louis  XVI.,  in 
November,  1786.  The  forest  is  the  especial  land  of 
French  artists,  who  overrun  and  possess  it  in  the  summer. 
There  are  innumerable  direction-posts,  in  which  all  the  red 
marks — put  up  by  Napoleon  III.,  because  so  few  peasants 
could  read — point  to  the  town.  The  following  points  are 
of  interest : — 

Rochers  d^Avo7i^  7  k.  (going  and  returning). 

Mail  de  Henri  IV.  and  Rocker  Bouligny — a  walk  of 
three  hours. 

Parquet  de  Mo7its-Aigiis  (only  open  Thursdays  and  Sun- 
days from  10  to  6),  and  Grotte  du  Sermejit.,  three  hours. 

Gorges  du  Houx,  Grottes  du  Parjure  and  du  Chasseur 
Noir — a  round  of  \o  k. 

Mont  Ussy  and  Vallee  die  Nid  de  VAigle. 

Fort  des  Moulins  and  Calvaire,  two  and  a  half  hours. 

Vallee  de  la  Solle,  Futaie  du  Gros-Fouteau,  Fontaines 
Sangui?iede  et  du  Mont  Chauvet — a  walk  of  four  hours.  If 
only  one  excursion  be  made,  this  may  be  commended. 
Leave  Fontainebleau  by  the  Barriere  de  Paris,  and,  from 
the  Rond-Point,  follow  (right)  the  blue  arrows.  Some  of 
the  oaks  in  this  part  of  the  forest  are  magnificent. 


2§0  J^A  YS  NEAR   PARIS 

The  Gorges d^ Apremont  {^\\k.  going  and  returning)  are 
very  picturesque. 

The  Gorges  de  Tranchard,  spoilt  artistically,  as  well 
as  the  Gorges  d'Apremont,  by  young  plantations,  were  in- 
habited by  hermits  from  the  time  of  Philii^pe  Auguste  to 
Louis  XIV. 

The  Gorge  aux  Loups  (five  hours  on  foot  going  and  re- 
turning) is  a  picturesque  spot,  but  a  dull  walk,  and  is  best 
combined  with  other  places  in  a  carriage-excursion.  But 
it  is  always  better  to  take  a  carriage  for  the  longer  dis- 
tances, selecting  a  coachman  who  knows  the  forest  and  is 
not  always  suggesting  imaginary  difficulties.  The  most 
usual  drives  are  the  Tillaie  dii  Roi^  the  Hauteur  de  la  Solle^ 
Tranchard^  the  Fort  de  rEmpereur,  and  then  to  the  Gorges 
d^Aprefnont,  or  the  Gorge  aux  Loups. 

"  Fountaine  Beleau  forrest  is  very  great  and  memorable  for 
exceeding  abundance  of  great  massy  stones  in  it,  whereof  many 
millions  are  so  great,  that  twenty  carts,  each  being  drawn  wit.i 
ten  oxen,  are  not  able  to  moue  one  of  them  out  of  their  place. 
The  plenty  of  them  is  so  great  both  in  the  forrest  and  neare  unto 
it,  that  many  hils  and  dales  are  exceeding  full  of  them,  in  so 
much  that  a  man  being  a  farre  off  from  the  hils  and  other  places 
whereon  they  grow,  would  thinke  they  were  some  great  city  or 
towne." — Coiyaf s  "  Ci'tidities ,^^  1611. 

The  beautiful  combinations  of  rocks  and  trees  were  not 
admired  formerly  as  they  are  now. 

"7  March,  1644.  I  went  with  some  compan}^  towards  Fon- 
tainebleau.  By  the  way  we  pass  through  a  forest  so  prodigiously 
encompass'd  with  hideous  rocks  of  whitish  hard  stone,  heaped 
one  on  another  in  mountainous  heights,  that  I  think  the  like  is 
not  to  be  found  elsewhere.  It  abounds  with  staggs,  wolves, 
boares,  and  not  long  after  a  lynx  or  ounce  was  kill'd  amongst 
them,  which  had  devour'd  some  passengers." — John  Evelyn. 

An  excursion  may  be  made  from  Fontainebleau  to  (8  k. ) 
the  pretty  old  town  of  Moret,  with  a  station  on  the  Lyons 


Mo  RET 


2S1 


railway.  The  kings  of  France  had  a  chateau  at  Moret,  of 
which  the  principal  tower  remains,  dating  from  Louis  le 
Gros  (1128).  Henri  IV.  gave  it  to  one  of  his  mistresses, 
Jacqueline  de  Bueil,  with  the  title  of  Comtesse  de  Moret. 
At  either  end  of  the  principal  street  is  a  fine  old  gothic 
gateway,  relic  of  the  fortifications  of  Charles  VII.  (1420), 
and  one  of  these  rises  most  picturesquely  at  the  end  of  the 
bridge  of  fourteen  arches  over  the  Loing.      The  church, 


built  by  Louis  le  Jeune,  and  consecrated  by  Thomas  a 
Becket  in  1 166,  only  retains  a  choir  of  that  date.  The 
triple  nave  and  the  transepts  (with  mullioned  windows 
filling  all  the  surface  of  the  gable  wall)  are  XIII.  c. :  the 
tower  XV.  c. ;  the  principal  portal  XVI.  c.  South  of  the 
church  is  a  timbered  house  of  XV.  c.  and  a  little  Hospice, 
where  the  nuns  make  excellent  barley-sugar.  In  the 
main  street,  a  renaissance  house  is  inscribed  "  Concordia 
res  parvae  crescunt,  16 18." 


XV. 

CORBEIL,   SAVIGNY-SUR-ORGE,  MONTLHERY, 
ETAMFES. 

THIS  is  a  pleasant  summer  da)^'s  excursion  from  Paris.  It  is 
best  to  take  a  single  ticket  at  the  Gare  de  Lyon  for  Cor- 
beil.  See  the  place,  and  have  luncheon  at  the  "Belle  Image/' 
In  returning,  only  take  a  ticket  to  Juvisy,  where  cross  to  the 
Chemin  de  Fer  d'Orleans  (alongside)  and  take  a  ticket  to  St. 
Michel  :  here  an  omnibus  for  Montlhery  meets  the  train.  In  the 
evening,  artists  may  think  it  worth  while  to  stop  between  two 
trains  to  sketch  the  picturesque  chateau  of  Savigny,  close  to  the 
station.  It  is  necessary  to  inquire  if  )^our  carriage  goes  to  the 
Gare  d'Orleans,  otherwise  you  may  enter  one  which  follows  the 
Chemin  de  Fer  de  Ceinture. 


The  trains  for  Corbeil  from  the  Gare  de  Lyon  cross  an 
ugly  plain,  but  approach  the  Seine  on  the  right,  and  low 
wooded  hills  on  the  left;,  where  the  main  line  is  left  at — 

15  >^.  Villeneuve-St.  Georges. — The  line  crosses  the  Seine 
to  Juvisy. 

2\  k.  Ris-0ra7igis. — Just  beyond  the  station  the  line 
passes  the  Chateau  de  Frejnont,  which  once  belonged  to 
the  Templars,  afterwards  to  the  President  de  Thou,  the 
historian,  who  had  alluded  to  the  profligacy  of  an  uncle  ^ 
of  Richelieu  in  his  works,  which  caused  the  minister  of 
Louis  XIIL  to  exclaim — "  De  Thou  a  mis  mon  nom  dans 

^  "  Moine  apostat  et  coupable  de  toutes  sortes  de  crimes." 


COkBElL  2  S3 

son  histoire  ;  je  mettrai  son  nom  dans  la  mienne,"  and  De 
Thou  himself  having  died  in  16 17,  Richelieu  beheaded  his 
son  in  1642.  This  is  the  station  for  the  Forest  of  Smarts 
which  is  traversed  by  the  road  from  Paris  to  Melun,  and  is 
celebrated  by  an  incident  which  occurred  to  Louis  XV. 

"  Hunting  one  day  in  the  forest  of  Senard,  in  a  year  when 
bread  was  extremely  dear,  he  met  a  man  on  horseback,  carry- 
ing a  coffin.      'Where  are  you  taking  that  coffin?'  said   the  king. 

'  To  the  village  of '  replied  the  peasant.'     '  Is  it  for  a  man 

or  a  woman?'  'For  a  man.'  'What  did  he  die  of?'  'Of 
hunger,'  replied  the  villager  abruptly.  The  king  put  spur  to  his 
horse  and  asked  no  more  questions." — Mdic  Campati. 

There  are  a  number  of  fine  chateaux  near  this,  the 
most  important  being  that  of  Fetit-Bourg,  pleasantly  situ- 
ated above  the  Seine^  which  belonged  to  the  Due  d'Antin, 
legitimate  eldest  son  of  Mme  de  Montespan,  who  received 
his  mother's  former  lover  and  Mme  de  Maintenon  here 
with  great  honors.  Louis  XV.  also  often  resorted  hither 
with  his  mistresses.  At  the  beginning  of  the  Revolution 
it  was  inhabited  by  the  Duchesse  de  Bourbon.  At  the 
invasion  of  the  allies,  Schwartzenburg  established  himself  in 
the  chateau  and  treated  there  with  Ney  and  Coulaincourt 
upon  the  abdication  of  Napoleon  I.  After  the  Restoration 
the  chateau  was  restored  by  Aguado,  Marquis  de  las 
Marismas. 

30  k.  Eur y-stir- Seine ^  connected  by  a  suspension  bridge 
with  Etiolles,  which  belonged  to  the  husband  of  Mme  de 
Pompadour.  In  later  days  the  chateau  was  inhabited 
by  Count  Walewski^  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  to  Napo- 
leon in. 

31  k.  Corbeil  {}lote\  Bellevue,  near  the  bridge  :  de  la 
Belle  Image,  good  and  reasonable),  a  considerable  town, 
at  the  meeting  of  the  Essonne  and  the  Seine,  which  is 
crossed  by  a  handsome  bridge  of  five  arches.     Of  its  five 


2^4  ^^  ^^  NEAR   PARIS 

ancient  churches  only  one  remains,  the  collegiate  church 
of  St.  Exupere  or  St.  Spire,  founded  by  Haymon,  first 
Comte  de  Corbeil,  in  950,  rebuilt  1144,  and  served  till 
1790  by  a  chapter  composed  of  a  secular  abbe,  twelve 
canons,  and  six  chaplains.  It  is  approached  by  a  very 
picturesque  gateway,  Porte  du  Cloitre,  from   the  principal 


PORTE   DU   CLOITRE,    CORBEIL. 


street.  The  west  porch  is  under  the  tower.  In  a  chapel 
right  of  the  principal  entrance  is  the  tomb  of  Count  Hay- 
mon,  who  is  said  to  have  built  the  church  in  honor  of  a 
victory  over  a  two-headed  dragon,  and  who  died  on  his 
return  from  a  pilgrimage  to  Italy  seven  years  after  its 
foundation.      In   the   same   chapel   is   the   monument  of 


ESSOiVNES  285 

Jacques  de  Bourgoin,  who  founded  the  College  of  Corbeil 
in  1661.  The  curious  shrine  of  St.  Spire  was  melted 
down  at  the  Revolution.  In  the  collegiate  buildings  Abe- 
lard  established  his  school,  when  he  fled  from  Melun. 

Nothing  remains  of  the  church  of  St.  Jean  de  I'Ermi- 
tage,  which  contained  the  relics  of  Sts.  Quirin  and  Pience  ; 
of  Notre  Dame,  which  claimed  to  have  those  of  St.  Yon  ; 
or  of  St.  Jean  en  ITsle,  founded  by  Isemburge,  the  di- 
vorced Danish  wife  of  Philippe  Auguste,  who  was  buried 
in  its  south  transept  (1256),  under  a  fine  tomb,  bearing  a 
metal  effigy.  Near  this  church  was  the  Palais  de  la  Reine, 
usually  given  as  a  residence  to  queens-dowager  of  France, 
where  the  chamber  of  Isemburge  was  preserved  till  the 
Revolution,  when  it  perished  like  the  tomb.  Near  the 
bridge,  on  the  left  bank  of  the  river,  was  the  chateau 
w^here  Charles  VIII.  imprisoned  the  famous  Georges 
d'Amboise  in  1487. 

Twenty  minutes'  walk  from  Corbeil  is  the  manufacturing 
village  of  Essonnes,  w^here  Bernardin  de  St.  Pierre  had  a 
cottage,  which  still  exists,  though  much  altered. 

Those  who  visit  Montlhery  after  spending  the  morning  at 
Corbeil  must  remember  to  change  their  line  at  Juvisy,  to  the 
Chemin  de  Fer  d'Orleans. 

Beyond  Corbeil,  on  the  line  to  Montargis,  is — 

41  k.  MeuJiecy,  with  a  XIII.  c.  church,  near  which  the 
Dues  de  Villeroy  had  a  fine  chateau,  which  perished  in 
the  Revolution, 

53  k.  La  Ferte-Alais  (Firmitas  Adelaidis)  has  an  inter- 
esting XII  c.  church,  with  a  stone  spire. 

60  k.  Boiitigfiy,  with  an  old  gateway.  The  church  is 
XII.  c. 

65  k.  Maisse  (7  k.  east  is  Milly,  with  a  XIII.  c.  church 
containing  a  sculptured  retable    offered   to   St.  Julienne, 


286  DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 

The  chateau  dates  from  1479,  '^^"^  '^^^  curious  halles  are  of 
the  same  period). 

77  /^.  Malesherbes, — The  church  (XII.  c. — XIII.  c.)  has 
an  octagonal  tower,  and  contains  a  St.  Sepulcre,  sculptured, 
in  1622,  for  the  convent  of  Cordeliers.  A  bust  of  M.  de 
Malesherbes  was  given  by  Louis  XVIII.  In  the  church- 
yard is  a  curious  XIII.  c.  tomb.  The  chateau,  originally 
XV.  c,  but  rebuilt,  is  still  inhabited  by  the  descendants  of 
the  brave  defender  of  Louis  XVI.  On  the  north  is  the 
restored  XV.  c.  Chateau  de  Rouville, 


The  Chemin  de  Fer  d'Orle'ans  starts  from  the  Boule- 
vard de  Hopital.     It  passes — 

dk.  Vitry-sur-Seine,  with  a  XVII.  c.  chateau  of  which 
the  owner,  M.  de  Petitval,  with  his  mother-in-law,  two  sis- 
ters, and  five  servants  were  murdered,  August  21,  1796,  by 
a  band  of  masked  robbers,  who  carried  off  the  family  pa- 
pers, and  were  never  brought  to  justice.  A  little  north  is 
Ivry,  which  has  an  old  church,  and  where  Claude  Bosc 
du  Bois,  Prevot  des  Marchands,  had  a  magnificent  chateau 
in  the  XVII.  c.  The  Duchesse  d'Orleans,  mother  of  Louis 
Philippe,  resided  at  Ivry,  which  is  now  covered  by  manu- 
factories. 

10 /^.  Choisy-le-Roi,  formerly  Choissy- Mademoiselle, 
where  "  La  Grande  Mademoiselle,"  Mile  de  Montpensier, 
only  daughter  of  the  first  marriage  of  Gaston,  Due  d'Or- 
leans, brother  of  Louis  XIIL,  employed  F.  Mansart  to 
build  a  chateau.  It  was  here  that  she  wept  for  her  hus- 
band, the  Comte  de  Lauzun,  imprisoned  at  Pignerol,  and 
that  she  endowed  the  Due  du  Maine  with  the  duchy  of 
Aumale,  tJie  countship  of  Eu,  and  the  principality  of  Dom- 
bes,  to  purchase  his  freedom  from  Louis  XIV.    The  resto- 


CHOISY-LE-ROI  287 

ration  of  Lauzun  gave  small  satisfaction  to  Mademoiselle. 
He  found  that  she  had  lost  all  good  looks  in  pining  for 
him,  and  treated  her  with  cruel  neglect.  In  vain  she  flung 
herself  at  his  feet,  crying,  "  Reviens  a  moi,  qui  t'aime  tant," 
he  answered,  "  Louise  d'Orle'ans,  tu  as  tort  de  pleurer,  car 
tu  me  parais.plus  vieille  et  plus  laide  que  jamais." 

"  He  retained  his  gallantry  a  very  long  time.  Mademoiselle 
was  jealous,  and  this  embroiled  them  over  and  over  again.  I  have 
heard  Mme  de  Fontenilles  say  that,  when  she  was  at  Eu  with  Made- 
moiselle, M.  de  Lauzun  went  to  pass  some  time  there,  and  could 
not  refrain  from  running  after  the  girls.  Mademoiselle  knew  it, 
lost  her  temper,  scratched  him  and  drove  him  from  her  presence. 
The  Comtesse  de  Fiesque  patched  it  up  :  Mademoiselle  appeared 
at  the  end  of  a  gallery  ;  he  was  at  the  other,  and  he  traversed  the 
whole  length  of  it  on  his  knees  till  he  came  to  the  feet  of  Made- 
moiselle. These  scenes,  more  or  less  violent,  often  recom- 
menced afterwards.  He  grew  tired  of  being  beaten,  and  in  his 
turn,  gave  Mademoiselle  a  good  sound  beating  ;  this  happened 
several  times,  till  at  last,  tired  of  each  other,  they  quarrelled  once 
for  good  and  all,  and  never  saw  each  other  again  ;  he  had,  how- 
ever, several  portraits  in  his  house,  and  always  spoke  of  her 
with  much  respect.  There  is  no  doubt  they  were  secretly  mar- 
ried."—  St.  Simon,  '^Memoiresy 

Mademoiselle  bequeathed  Choisy  to  Monseigneur,  son 
of  Louis  XIV.,  who  exchanged  it  for  Meudo.n  with  Mme 
de  Louvois,  who  lived  here  "  toute  I'e'te  avec  bonne  com- 
pagnie,  mais  de'cente  et  tres-gaie,  convenable  a  son  age."  ^ 
Afterwards  Choisy  belonged  to  the  Princesse  de  Conti,  the 
Due  de  la  Valliere,  and  eventually  to  Louis  XV.,  when  it 
became  Choisy-le-Roi,  and  one  of  his  favorite  retreats. 
He  employed  Jacques  Gabriel  to  decorate  (and  spoil)  the 
architecture  of  Mansart  and  to  build  a  smaller  chateau  for 
Mme  de  Pompadour.  Both  the  chateaux  were  decorated 
by  Chardin,  Nattier,  Boucher,  Oudry,  and  other  artists  of 

1  St  Simon, 


288  ^A  YS  NEAR   PARIS 

the  day.  In  1774  Louis  XVI.  and  Marie  Antoinette  held 
their  Court  here,  but  the  Grand  and  the  Petit  Chateau  were 
both  utterly  destroyed  at  the  Revolution,  and  nothing  re- 
mains except  les  gra7ids  co??imtms,  now  occupied  by  a  china 
manufactory. 

Close  to  Choisy  are  the  village  of  Thiais,  which  dates 
from  Charlemagne,  and  Orly,  where,  in  1360,  300  men  en- 
dured a  siege  of  three  months  from  the  English,  who  bru- 
tally massacred  them  when  hunger  forced  them  to  capit- 
ulate. 

i$k.  Ablon. — A  place  entirely  protestant  in  the  XVI.  c. 
Sully  had  a  villa  there,  of  which  there  are  some  remains 
facing  the  quay. 

17  >^.  Athis-Mons. — The  church  of  Athis  has  a  XIII.  c. 
tower. 

2o>('.  Juvisy-sur-Orge. — It  was  here,  in  the  post-house 
of  the  Cour  de  France,  that  (March  30,  18 14)  Napoleon  I., 
on  his  way  to  Paris,  received  the  despatch  which  an- 
nounced the  capitulation  of  the  capital,  and  returned  to 
Fontainebleau.  Near  Juvisy  is  the  picturesque  double 
bridge  of  Belles  Fontaines. 

2  2>^.  Savigny-sur-0?'ge. — Close  to  the  station  is  the 
very  handsome  XV.  c.  chateau  where  Charles  VII.  is  said 
to  have  kept  Agnes  Sorel  in  a  tower,  which  he  could  only 
reach  by  a  ladder.  In  recent  times  the  chateau  has  been 
inhabited  by  the  Princesse  d'Eckmiihl,  widow  of  Mare- 
chal  Davoust.  It  now  belongs  to  the  Marquis  d'Alta- 
Villa. 

2\k.  Epinay-sur-Orge. — To  the  left  of  the  railway  we 
now  pass  the  Forest  of  St.  Genevieve^  or  Seqidgny.  Here 
Louis  XIV.  was  hunting  with  his  Court,  when  the  wind 
blew  away  the  hat  of  one  of  the  ladies  in  waiting  of  Ma- 
dame, and  attracted  his  attention  to  Marie  de  Fontange — 


FORET  BE   SEQUIGNY 


289 


**  Delle  comme  un  ange,  mais  sotte  comme  un  panier," 
who  soon  shared  the  title  of  mistress  with  Mme  de  Mon- 
tespan. 

*'  Mile  de  Fontange  pleased  the  king  enough  to  be  his  mistress 
en  titre.  Strange  as  this  double  arrangement  was,  it  was  not  new. 
We  had  seen  Mile  de  la  Valliere  and  Mme  de  Montespan,  whom 
the  former  only  paid  in  the  coin  she  had  paid  to  another.  But 
Mile  de  Fontange  was  not  so  fortunate  either  in  vice,  or  fortune, 
or  repentance.     Her  beauty  sustained  her  for  a  time,  but  her  in- 


CHATEAU   OF   SAVIGNY-SUR-ORGE. 


tellect  was  good  for  nothing.  Intelligence  was  required  to  amuse 
and  hold  the  king.  If  she  had  had  that  he  would  not  have  had  the 
leisure  to  be  utterly  disgusted  with  her.  A  quick  death,  which 
caused  no  surprise,  put  an  end  speedily  to  this  new  love." — St. 
Simon. 

The  Chateau  St.  Genevieve,  inhabited  by  Louis  XIII. 
and  Louis  XIV.,  was  pulled  down  by  Berthier  de  Savigny, 
Intendant  de  Paris,  but  he  only  began  to  build  a  new  one. 

To  the  right  of  the  railway  on  the  other  side  of  the 


290 


DA  YS  NEAR  PARIS 


Orge  is  Longport,  where  a  very  curious  church  is  the  ouiy 
remnant  of  an  abbey  founded  by  Guy  de  Montlhdry  and  his 
wife  Hodierne,  in  1061,  on  the  site  of  a  pilgrimage  chapel 
where  an  image  of  the  Virgin  had  been  found  in  a  hollow 
oak.  The  abbey  perished  in  the  Revolution.  The  church 
portal,  with  its  mutilated  statues,  is  of  great  beauty. 

29  k.  St.  Michel. — Half  an  hour's  walk  beyond  the  brook 
of  the  Orge  (right)  is  Mo7itlhery  (diligence,  30  c),  which 
jDOSsessed  a  famous  castle,  constantly  besieged  by  early 
kings  of  France  till  Hugues  de  Cre'cy  strangled  the  owner, 
Milon  de  Bray,  who  was  his  cousin,  and  threw  the  body 
from  an  upper  window,  and  afterwards,  being  challenged  to 
clear  himself  of  the  accusation  by  single  combat,  confessed 
the  crime,  retired  to  a  monastery,  and  abandoned  Montlhery 
to  the  king,  Louis  le  Gros. 

St.  Louis  and  his  mother  afterwards  took  refuge  here 
during  the  troubles  of  his  early  reign.  In  1360  Montlhery 
was  occupied  by  the  king  of  England,  afterwards  by  the 
Armagnacs,  and,  in  the.  reign  of  Louis  XL,  it  gave  a  name 
to  a  battle  between  the  royal  troops  and  those  of  the  rebel 
nobles  who  formed  the  ligue  du  bien  public.  The  latter  were 
so  far  successful  that  the  king  was  obliged  to  accord  all 
their  demands,  and  made  a  treaty  "  par  lequel,"  says  Co- 
mines,  "  les  princes  butinerent  le  monarque  et  le  mirent 
au  pillage;  chacun  emporta  sa  piece." 

"  The  battle  which  took  the  name  of  Montlhery,  because  it 
took  place  in  a  plain  near  that  town,  offered  the  singular  spectacle 
of  two  armies  in  flight  at  the  same  moment.  On  both  sides  the 
leaders  abandoned  the  field  of  battle  ;  Louis  XI.,  overcome  by 
fatigue,  was  carried  to  the  chateau  of  Montlheri,  while  the  Count 
de  Charolais,  hurrying  after  the  fugitives  to  rally  them,  increased 
the  terror  of  the  Burgundians  by  making  them  believe,  by  his  ab- 
sence, that  he  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy.  The 
French,  not  seeing  their  king,  had  the  same  idea  ;  others,  the 


MARCOUSSIS  291 

majority  indeed,  believed  the  king  dead,  while,  breathless  and 
worn  out,  he  was  lying  on  a  couch  in  the  old  donjon  of  Montlhery, 
whose  indestructible  tower  still  defies  the  ages." — Lafosse,  ''Hist, 
de  Paris.'" 

The  plain  which  was  the  scene  of  this  bloody  battle 
long  bore  the  name  of  La  Cimetiere  des  Bourguignons. 
Ruined  in  the  wars  of  religion,  the  castle  of  Montlhery 
was  afterwards  used  as  a  quarry,  and  the  dungeon  tower, 
with  fragments  of  four  smaller  towers  and  broken  walls, 
now  alone  exists.  Boileau  describes  Night  going  to  search 
for  an  owl  in  the  Tour  de  Montlhery. 

"  Ses  murs,  dont  le  sommet  se  derobe  a  la  vue, 
Sur  le  cime  d'un  roc  s'allongent  dans  la  nue. 
Et,  presentant  de  loin  leur  objet  ennuyeux, 
Du  passant  qui  le  fuit  semblent  suivre  les  yeux. 
Mille  oiseaux  effrayants,  mille  corbeaux  funebres, 
De  ces  murs  desertes  habitent  les  tenebres. 
La,  depuis  trente  hivers,  un  hibou  retire 
Trouvait  contre  le  jour  un  refuge  assure. 
Des  desastres  fameux  ce  messager  fidele 
Salt  toujours  des  malheurs  la  premiere  nouvcllc, 
Et,  tout  pret  d'en  semer  le  presage  odieux, 
II  attendait  la  nuit  dans  ces  sauvages  lieux." — Boilcati. 

One  of  the  old  tower  gates  remains,  the  Porte  Baudry, 
built,  as  an  inscription  tells,  by  Thibault  File-Etaupe,  in 
1015,  rebuilt  by  Henri  III.  in  1587,  restored  under 
Napoleon  I.  Through  the  Porte  Baudr>'  we  reach  the 
suburb   of   Lijias,  where   a  great  part  of   the   church   is 

XIII.  c. 

A  little  west  of  Montlhery  is  Marcoussis,  which  has 
some  small  remains  of  the  fortress  built  at  the  end  of  the 

XIV.  c.  by  Jean  de  Montaigu,  Chancellor  of  the  Ex- 
chequer under  Charles  VI.,  beheaded  at  the  Halles  in 
1409.  His  body  was  brought  from  the  gibbet  of  Mont- 
faucon  to  be  buried  here  in  the  Celestine  convent  which 


292 


DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 


he  had  founded.^  In  the  time  of  Henri  III.  the  chateau 
belonged  to  Francois  de  Balzac  d'Entragues,  the  husband 
of  Marie  Touchet,  mistress  of  Charles  IX.,  and  it  was 
afterwards  the  residence  of  his  daughter,  Henriette  d'En- 
tragues, at  one  time  beloved  by  Henri  IV.  The  chieftains 
of  the  Fronde  were  imprisoned  in  the  fortress,  which  was 
pulled  down  in  1S05.  The  church,  of  1388,  has  some 
gooil  stained  glass. 


PORTE  BAUDRY,  MONTLHERY. 


The  line  continues  by — 

32/'.   ^>^^//^;?j',  where  the  line   to  Tours  by  Vendome 
branches  off  to  the  right. 


1  His  epitaph  contained  the  words:  "  Lequel,  en  haine  des  bons  et  loyaux 
services  par  lui  faits  au  roi  et  au  royaume,  fut,  par  les  rebelles  ennemis  du  roi, 
injustement  mis  a  mort  a  Paris."     Behind  his  head  were  the  lines  : — 

"  Non  vetuit  servata  fides  regi  patriaeque 
Ne  tandem  injuste  traderet  ipse  neci  ; " 


and  above  it — 


"  Pour  ce  qu'en  paix  tenois  le  sang  de  France, 
Et  soulageois  le  peuple  de  grevance, 
Je  souffris  mort  contre  droit  et  justice 
Et  sans  raison  ;  Dieu  si  m'en  soit  propice." 

See  Dulaure,  "  Environs  de  Parish 


ETRECHY  293 

On  the  line  to  Vendome,  easily  attainable  in  a  day's 
excursion  from  Paris,  are — 

45  k.  Breuilkt. — ^k.  south  is  the  magnificent  Church  of 
St.  Sidpice-de- Fav teres ,  founded  to  receive  the  relics  of  St. 
Sulpice  le  De'bonnaire,  Archbishop  of  Bourges,  and  al- 
moner of  Clotaire  II.,  who  died  in  644.  It  is  a  splendid 
specimen  of  late  XIII.  c.  gothic,  with  a  very  lofty  choir, 
sculptured  stall-work,  and  XV.  c.  glass.  La  Butte-St.-Yo7i 
is  said  to  have  been  a  Roman  camp. 

47/^.  St.  Cheron. — The  neighboring  Chateau  de  Bla- 
viile,  begun  by  the  President  Guillaume  de  Lamoignon  in 
1658,  is  a  very  stately  building  of  the  time  of  Louis  XIII. 
Boileau,  Racine,  and  Bourdaloue  were  frequently  here  as 
the  guests  of  Guillaume  and  Fran9ois  de  Lamoignon,  and 
Mme  de  Sevigne  describes  the  charms  of  its  society  in  her 
letters. 

56/^.  Dourdan  (Hotel  de  la  Foste),  a  picturesque  old 
town,  with  an  interesting  ruined  Castle,  built  by  Philippe 
Auguste.  The  XIII.  c.  Church  of  St.  Germain  is  very  pict- 
uresque in  outline,  and  contains  a  stone  pulpit,  good 
wood-carving,  and  the  grave  of  the  poet  Regnard,  1709. 
The  Halle  is  XIII.  c.  At  Grillo7i^  west  of  the  town,  was 
the  residence  of  Regnard. 

43  >^.  Lardy. — The  Chateau  de  Mesfiil  Voisi?i,  belong- 
ing to  the  Marquise  de  Polignac,  is  a  fine  building  of  the 
time  of  Louis  XIII. 

46/^.  Chamarande. — The  chateau,  built  by  Mansart, 
with  a  park  by  Lenotre,  was  inhabited,  under  Napoleon 
III.,  by  the  Due  de  Persigny. 

49  k.  Ftrechy,  which  has  a  remarkably  simple  early- 
pointed  cruciform  church,  with  a  central  tower.  The  sculpt- 
ure of  the  foliage  in  the  pier-capitals  is  extremely  bold. 

56/^.   Etampes  (HoteW//^   Gra?td  Courrier ;  du    Grand 


294 


DAYS  NEAR   PARIS 


Motiarque ;  dti  Cheval  Blanc),  a  most  picturesque  and  in- 
teresting place.  The  charming  public  walks  and  avenues 
are  bordered  by  remains  of  the  city  walls.  The  long, 
white,  ill-paved  town  straggles  through  the  hollow,  full  of 
curious  buildings,  possessing  four  churches  of  the  greatest 
value  to  the  architectural  student,  and  watered  by  the  little 
river  Juine,  which  Coulon  ("L'Ulysse  Fran9ais,"  1643)  de- 
scribes as  "pavee  d'une  si  grande  quantite  d'ecrevisses 
que  plus  on  en  pesche,  plus  il  en  vient." 


ST.    BASILE,    ETAMPES. 


Nearest  the  station  is  the  Church  of  St.  Basile,  a  gothic 
building  with  renaissance  details.  The  west  front  is  ro- 
manesque,  with  a  grand  portal.  The  church  was  partially 
rebuilt  under  Louis  XII.,  but  only  the  nave,  with  very  wide 
aisles,  and  part  of  the  choir  were  finished,  owing  to  want 
of  funds ;  and  the  architects  have  left  on  the  east  wall  the 
inscription — Faxit  Dens  perficiar.  The  tower  is  of  the  end 
of  the  XII.  c. 

Close  by,  a  Caisse  d'Epargne  occupies  the  house  which 


ETAMPES 


295 


bears  the  name  of  Diane  de  Poitiers.  The  fagade  towards 
the  oourt  is  of  extreme  richness  and  beauty.  One  of  the 
doors  has  a  medallion  of  Frangois  I. 

Very  near  this,  at  the  angle  of  the  Rue  de  Paris  and 
Rue  St.  Croix,  is  the  house  of  Anne  de  Pisseleu,  Duchesse 
d'Etampes  (1538),  of  the  best  period  of  the  XVI.  c.  The 
neighboring^  house,  of  the  time  of  Louis  XII.,  is  made 
into  a  Hotel  de  Ville. 

Above  the  market-place  rises  the  beautiful  Church  of 
Notre  Da77ie  du  Fort^  founded  by  Robert  le  Pieux,  ex- 
ceedingly picturesque,  with  its  battlemented  fagade,  its 
buttresses  overgrown  with  wallflowers  {boutons  d^or).  The 
wide  gothic  portal  is  under  the  romanesque  tower,  which 
is  in  the  centre  of  the  west  front,  with  a  steeple  of  great 
beauty,  ribbed  and  ornamented  with  scales. 

"  The  manner  in  which  the  upper  octagonal  stage  of  the  tower 
harmonizes  with  the  spire  lights,  and  is  connected  by  the  pin- 
nacles both  with  the  square  base  below  and  the  spire  above,  is 
worth  attention." — ■/.  L.  Petit. 

Near  the  Juine  is  an  old  hotel,  inscribed  Hostel  Saint- 
Yoii,  with  octagonal  tourelles,  and  richly  sculptured  win- 
dows. 

The  fine  parish  church  of  St.  Gillcs  is  chiefly  XVI.  c, 
but  has  a  very  simple  romanesque  west  portal  of  theXII.  c. 
The  restored  interior  has  many  good  incised  monuments. 

"The  object  of  the  architect  has  been  to  adapt,  at  the  inter- 
section of  the  transepts,  a  square  tower,  narrower  than  either  the 
nave,  chancel,  or  transepts.  The  base  is  square,  visible  above 
the  roof  of  the  nave,  but  absorbed  by  the  transepts  and  chancel. 
From  the  angles  rise  trangular  slopes,  as  for  the  support  of  an 
octagon  ;  on  these,  as  well  as  on  the  space  left  on  each  of  the 
faces  of  the  tower,  stand  equal  gables  :  four  cardinal,  and  four 
diagonal.  The  points  of  the  diagonal  ones  support  the  angles  of 
a  smaller  square  tower,  the  faces  of  which  fall  behind  the  gables 
resting  on  the  sides  of  the  base." — Petit, 


296 


DA  YS  NEAR  PARIS 


St.  Marti?i  (4  k.  from  the  station)  has  a  leaning  west 
tower,  standing  detached  in  front  of  the  church,  and  only 
connected  with  it  by  a  porch.  The  upper  part  of  the  west 
front  is  free.  The  church  is  early-pointed  or  transitional, 
having  a  nave  with  aisles,  small  transepts  not  extending 
beyond  the  aisles,  and  a  semicircular  apse,  from  which 
three  radiating  chapels  project. 


ST.    GILLES,    ETAMPES. 


The  hill  behind  the  station  was  occupied  by  the  XII.  c. 

Chateau  des  Quatre  Tours,  of  which  the  most  important 
remnant  is  the  curious  keep,  or  Tour  Giiinette.  This  is  of 
very  peculiar  form,  seeming  to  be  composed  by  the  union 
of  four  circular  towers.  The  entrance,  on  the  first  floor, 
was  reached  by  a  drawbridge.  The  apartment  of  the  lord 
on  the  second  floor  was  beautifully  vaulted  in  stone ;  the 


CHATEAU  DE   MEREVILLE  297 

capitals  of  the  columns  still  exist. ^  Amongst  the  other 
remains  of  the  castle  are  those  of  a  little  chapel  of  St. 
Laurent. 

The  next  station  beyond  Etampes  is — 

70  k.  Mon?ierville,  6  k.  from  which,  on  the  Juine,  is  the 
interesting  Chateau  de  Mereville,  of  XV.  c.  to  XVI.  c, 
splendidly  decorated  by  the  painter  Jean  Joseph  de  la 
Borde,  under  Louis  XVL,  at  an  expense  of  fourteen  mil- 
lion francs.  It  contains  a  vast  amount  of  interesting  old 
furniture  in  its  apartments  lighted  by  365  windows. 

^  See  Victor  Petit,  Bulletin  MonumentaL 


XVI. 
SCEAUX,   CHEVREUSE,  AND  LI M OURS. 

THE  Chemin  de  Fer  de  Sceaux  et  d'Orsay  starts  from 
Paris  near  the  Barriere  d'Enfer.  A  pleasant  little 
afternoon  excursion  may  be  made  without  any  fatigue  to 
Robinson  and  Sceaux.  They  will  be  found  a  refreshment 
after  some  of  the  Paris  sights  in  this  direction — the  Gobe- 
lins, Val  de  Grace,  &c.  The  line  passes  through  a  bare 
country.  The  great  asylum  of  Bicetre  is  seen  on  the  left, 
then  the  graceful  aqueduct  crossing  a  valley,  before 
reaching — 

6  k.  Arcueil,  celebrated  for  its  aqueduct,  built  by 
Jacques  Debrosses  for  Marie  de  Medicis  to  bring  water  to 
Paris,  but  chiefly  to  feed  the  fountains  of  the  Luxembourg, 
on  the  site  of  an  aqueduct  which  existed  in  Roman  times, 
which  gave  a  name  (Arculi)  to  the  village,  and  which 
served  the  Palais  des  Thermes.  The  church  dates  from 
the  XIII.  c,  but  was  altered  in  the  XV.  c.  In  the  vil- 
lage, No.  24  Grande  Rue,  a  picturesque  building  of  stone 
and  brick,  was  the  house  of  the  intendant  of  the  Due  de 
Guise,  who  possessed  a  splendid  chateau,  destroyed  in 
1753,  on  the  neighboring  hill.  A  bust,  on  the  Place  des 
Ecoles,  commemorates  the  residence  at  Arcueil  of  Laplace, 
author  of  the  Mecaniqiie  celeste. 


BOURG-LA-REINE  299 

Charles  Louis,  Comte  de  BerthoUet,  celebrated  for  his 
scientific  and  archaeological  studies,  died  at  Arcueil, 
Nov.  9,  1748. 

"  In  his  country  seat  at  Arcueil,  he  could  divide  his  time 
between  study  and  his  simple  tastes.  All  his  luxury  consisted 
in  his  laboratory,  his  library,  and  a  hot-house  which  served  him 
for  a  saloon,  where  he  was  delighted  to  receive  his  friends. 
Learned  strangers  met  with  the  most  cordial  welcome.  There 
came  to  this  philosophic  retreat,  even  during  the  war,  physicists 
and  chemists  of  the  greatest  celebrity,  the  rivals  of  Berthollet  in 
discoveries  and  in  services  to  science." — Hoeffer. 

8  k.  Bourg-la-Reine,  where  Edward  III.  of  England  en- 
camped against  Paris  in  1359.  Here  Louis  XV.,  a  twelve- 
year-old  king,  had  his  first  interview  with  the  still  younger 
Infanta  of  Spain,  who  was  intended  for  his  bride,  but  was 
unceremoniously  sent  back  to  Spain  three  years  after. 
The  house  in  the  Grande  Rue,  where  the  first  interview  of 
Louis  XV.  and  the  Infanta  took  place,  is  believed  to  have 
been  built  by  Henry  IV.  for  Gabrielle  d'Estrees.  At  the 
end  of  the  Grande  Rue  is  the  old  gate  leading  to  the 
Chateau  de  Sceaux.  On  the  little  square  a  bust  com- 
memorates Condorcet  (i 743-1 793),  author  of  Progres  de 
Vesprit  hu7nain^  who  poisoned  himself  in  the  prisons  of 
Bourg-Egalite  when  arrested  during  the  Revolution.  The 
house  called  L^Aumbnerie  was  the  scene  of  the  horrible 
cruelties  of  the  Marquis  de  Sade  in  the  XVIII.  c. 

9  k.  Fontejiay-aiix-Roses  (to  the  right  of  the  railway)  was 
the  residence  of  Scarron.  It  is  a  pretty  knot  of  villas, 
buried  in  shrubs  and  gardens.  Fontenay  is  most  easily 
reached  by  the  omnibus  which  starts  every  fifteen  minutes 
from  45  Rue  Crenelle  St.  Honore  (50  c),  passing  through 
Chatillon-sous-Bagneaux. 

It  is  a  pleasant  walk  of  2  k.  from  the  station  of  Fontenay 
(open  omnibus,  50  c.)  to  Robinson^  a  very  singular  and  rather 


300 


DAYS  NEAR  PARIS. 


pretty  village  on  the  edge  of  a  slight  hill.  It  consists  of  a 
street  of  cafes  and  restaurants,  the  most  important  of  which 
has  its  little  dining-parlors  under,  around,  and  high  in  the 
branches  of  some  curious  old  chestnut  trees.  The  place  is 
exceedingly  popular  with  Parisians  of  the  middle  classes, 
and  crowded  in  fine  summer    evenings.      Quantities  of 


S^fe^K. 


^;iii^^' 


donkeys  and  horses  are  waiting  to  convey  visitors  to  the 
neighboring  village  of  Aulnay,  which  stands  at  the  entrance 
of  the  Vallee  aux  Loups^  containing  the  grotesque  house  of 
Chateaubriand,  about  which  he  says :  "  Je  precedais  la 
mairie  du  moyen  age  qui  vous  he'bete  a  present. "  Pleasant 
rides  may  be  taken  from  Robinson  through  the  Bois  de 
Verri^res. 


SCEA  UX  301 

The  railway  winds  oddly  and  pleasantly  amongst  gar- 
dens to — 

12  k.  Sceaux  (which  may  also  be  reached  by  an  omni- 
bus starting  every  hour  from  the  Passage  Dauphine,  50  c, 
and  passing  through  Bagtieux,  where  the  church  of  St. 
Herbland  has  a  fine  XIII.  c.  portal).  Sceaux  first  became 
celebrated  in  the  XIII.  c.  from  the  relics  of  St.  Mammes, 
martyred  in  Cappadocia,  brought  from  Palestine  by  Adam 
de  Colis,  and  preserved  in  the  church,  where  they  were  be- 
lieved to  cure  from  colic  those  who  approached  them. 
Colbert  built  a  magnificent  chateau  at  Sceaux,  employing 
Perrault  in  his  buildings,  Lebrun  for  their  decoration, 
and  Lenotre  in  laying  out  the  garden.  Sceaux  w^as  pur- 
chased in  1690  from  the  heirs  of  the  Marquis  de  Seignelay 
for  the  Due  du  Maine,  son  of  Louis  XIV.  and  Mme  de 
Montespan,  the  idolized  pupil  of  Mme  de  Maintenon,  who 
had  first  become  known  to  the  king  as  his  son's  governess, 
and  who  had  printed,  in  1677,  a  book  of  historical  extracts 
made  by  him  under  the  title  of  CEiivres  diverses  d^un 
enfant  de  sept  ans. 

"Sceaux  was  the  theatre  of  the  follies  of  the  Duchesse  de 
Maine,  and  of  the  shame,  embarrassment,  and  ruin  of  her  hus- 
band, by  the  immensity  of  her  expenditures  and  the  theatrical 
performances  given  to  the  court  and  the  town  that  flocked  there 
and  mocked  them.  She  herself  played  'Athalie,'  with  the 
comedians  of  both  sexes,  and  other  pieces,  several  times  in  the 
week.  Sleepless  nights  were  passed  at  hazard  or  cards,  in  fetes, 
illuminations,  fire-works;  in  a  word,  fetes  and  fancies  of  all  kinds 
and  every  day.  She  swam  in  the  joy  of  her  new  grandeur  and  re- 
doubled her  follies." — St.  Sitnon,  ''Memoires,"  1714. 

It  was  here  that  Louis  XIV.  took  leave  of  his  grand- 
son, the  Due  d'Anjou,  on  his  leaving  France  to  assume 
the  crown  of  Spain. 

"Saturday,  December  4,  the  King  of  Spain  visited  the  king 
before  any  one  else  was  admitted,  and  remained  there  a  long  time 


302 


DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 


alone,  and  then  went  down  to  Monseigneur,  with  whom  also  he 
remained  a  long  time  alone.  They  all  heard  mass  together  ;  the 
crowd  of  courtiers  was  incredible.  On  coming  out  from  mass 
they  immediately  entered  their  carriage,  the  Duchesse  de  Bour- 
gogne  between  the  two  kings  on  the  back  seat,  Monseigneur  on 
the  front  one  between  his  other  two  sons,  Monsieur  at  one  door 
and  Madame  at  the  other,  surrounded  with  many  more  guards 
than  usual,  gendarmes  and  light  cavalry;  the  whole  road  to 
Sceaux  was  strewn  with  carriages  and  people,  and  Sceaux,  where 
they  arrived  soon  after  noon,  was  full  of  ladies  and  courtiers,  and 
guarded  by  two  companies  of  musketeers.  When  they  left  the 
carriage,  the  king  crossed  the  lower  apartment  and  entered  the 
last  room  alone  with  the  King  of  Spain,  leaving  everybody  in  the 
saloon.  A  quarter  of  an  hour  afterwards  he  summoned  Mon- 
seigneur, who  had  also  remained  in  the  saloon,  and  some  time 
afterwards  the  ambassador  of  Spain,  who  took  leave  of  the  king 
his  master.  A  moment  afterwards  he  summoned  Monseigneur 
and  the  Duchesse  de  Bourgogne,  M.  the  Duke  de  Berry,  Mon- 
sieur and  Madame,  and  after  a  short  interval  the  princes  of  the 
blood.  The  door  was  opened  wide,  and  from  the  saloon  they 
were  all  seen  Aveeping  bitterly.  The  king  said  to  the  King  of 
Spain,  on  presenting  the  princes  to  him  :  *  Here  are  the  princes  of 
my  blood  and  yours  ;  the  two  nations,  at  present,  ought  no  longer 
to  regard  themselves  except  as  one  nation  ;  they  ought  to  have 
the  same  interests,  as  I  wish  that  these  princes  should  be  as  at- 
tached to  you  as  to  me  ;  3'ou  will  never  have  friends  more  faithful 
nor  more  assured.'  All  this  lasted  an  hour  and  a  half.  At  last 
they  had  to  part.  The  king  escorted  the  King  of  Spain  to  the  end 
of  the  apartments  and  embraced  him  repeatedly,  holding  him  for 
a  long  time  in  his  arms,  and  Monseigneur  likewise.  The  spec- 
tacle was  extremely  touching." — St.  Simon,  ''Me'moires." 

The  Court  of  Louis  XIV.  frequently  halted  at  Sceaux 
on  their  way  to  and  from  Fontainebleau.  We  find  the 
Duchesse  d'Orleans  writing  : — 

"  28th  October,  1704.  Last  Thursday  we  left  Fontainebleau 
at  eleven,  and  at  a  quarter  to  five  we  were  at  Sceaux.  I  went  to 
the  kitchen  garden.  I  wanted  to  see  it,  as  poor  M.  de  Navailles, 
my  son's  late  tutor,  had  praised  it  highly.  In  the  time  of  M.  Col- 
bert, he  came  expressly  to  see  Sceaux.  The  beautiful  cascade 
was  shown  him,  the  water  gallery,  which  is  wonderful,  the  avenue 


SCEA  UX  20, 

of  chestnuts,  the  arbors,  in  fact  all  that  was  beautiful  to  see.  He 
did  not  praise  an3^thing  till  he  came  to  the  kitchen  garden  where 
the  salad  was,  then  he  cried,  '  In  very  truth,  here  is  fine  chicory  ! ' 
I  went  then,  like  him,  to  see  the  fine  chicory." — Correspondance  de 
Madatne. 

But  Sceaux  is  chiefly  connected  with  the  follies  and 
extravagances  of  the  Duchesse  du  Maine,  Anne  Louise 
Benedicite  de  Bourbon-Conde,  granddaughter  of  the  Grand 
Conde,  and  the  sufferings  of  her  fickle-minded  husband. 

"  Mme  du  Maine  had  long  since  shaken  off  the  yoke  of  com- 
plaisance, attention,  and  all  that  she  called  constraint.  She 
did  not  heed  either  the  king  or  M.  the  Prince,  who  would  not 
have  been  well  received  if  he  had  crossed  her,  seeing  that  the 
king,  who  took  the  part  of  M.  du  Maine,  could  do  nothing.  On 
the  slightest  provocation,  he  endured  all  the  arrogance  of  an 
unequal  marriage,  often  for  nothing,  tempers  and  outcries,  that 
made  hinl  fear  for  her  head.  He  adopted  the  plan  then  of  letting 
her  go  on  and  ruin  him  by  her  fetes,  fireworks,  balls,  and  comedies, 
which  she  acted  herself  in  public,  dressed  as  an  actress." — St. 
Simon,  1705. 

"Mme  du  Maine  took,  more  and  more,  to  acting  plays  with 
her  domestics,  and  some  retired  actors.  All  the  court  went  to 
them,  and  could  not  comprehend  the  folly  of  the  trouble  of  dress- 
ing like  an  actress,  learning  and  declaiming  the  grandest  parts,  and 
appearing  to  a  public  audience  in  a  theatre.  M.  du  Maine,  who 
dared  not  contradict  her  for  fear  lest  her  brain  give  way,  was  by 
the  side  of  a  door,  and  did  the  honors.  Except  for  absurdity, 
these  amusements  were  not  cheap." — St.  Simon,  1707. 

"  M,  du  Maine  .  .  .  had  wit,  I  will  not  say  like  an  angel, 
but  like  a  devil,  whom  he  resembled  so  strongly  in  malignity, 
blackness,  perversity  of  soul,  disservice  to  all,  service  to  none, 
in  dark  ways,  in  the  haughtiest  pride,  in  exquisite  falsity,  in 
countless  artifices,  in  measureless  dissimulations,  and  still,  in 
agreeability,  the  art  of  amusing,  diverting,  and  charming  when  he 
wished  to  please.  He  was  a  poltroon,  accomplished  in  mind  and 
heart,  and,  therefore,  all  the  more  dangerous  a  poltroon. 

"He  was  urged  on  by  a  woman  of  the  same  stamp,  whose 
intellect — and  she  had  an  infinity  of  it — was  spoiled  and  corrupted 
by  reading  romances  and  plays,  a  passion  to  which  she  abandoned 
herself  to  such  a  degree  that  she  passed  years  in  learning  them  by 


304 


DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 


heart,  and  publicly  performing  them  herself.  She  had  courage  to 
excess,  was  enterprising,  daring,  furious,  knowing  only  her 
present  passion,  to  which  she  made  everything  defer,  indignant 
at  the  prudence  and  discretion  of  her  husband,  which  she  called 
miserable  weakness,  and  whom  she  reproached  with  the  honor 
she  had  done  him  by  marrying  him,  and  rendered  mean  and  sub- 
missive before  her  by  treating  him  like  a  negro,  and  ruining  him, 
from  top  to  bottom,  without  his  daring  to  say  a  word.  He  bore 
all  from  her  in  the  fear  he  had  of  her,  and  the  terror  that  her  head 
would  be  quite  turned.  Although  he  concealed  many  things  from 
her,  the  ascendancy  she  had  over  him  was  incredible,  and  she 
drove  him  forward  with  a  stick." — St,  Simon. 

Nothing  could  exceed  the  magnificence  as  well  as  the 
extravagance  of  "  les  grandes  nuits  de  Sceaux." 

"The  beginning  of  them,  as  of  all  things,  was  very  simple. 
Madame  the  Duchess  of  Maine,  who  loved  to  remain  up,  often 
passed  the  whole  night  in  different  kinds  of  games.  The  Abbe 
de  Vaubrun,  one  of  her  courtiers  most  anxious  to  please  her,  pro- 
posed, that  during  one  of  the  nights  destined  for  this  purpose, 
some  one  should  appear  under  the  form  of  Night  clad  in  crape, 
and  thank  the  princess  for  the  preference  she  accorded  to  night 
over  day,  and  that  the  goddess  should  have  a  follower  to  sing  a 
pretty  air  on  the  same  subject.  .  .  .  The  idea  was  applauded  ; 
and  this  gave  rise  to  the  magnificent  fetes  given  at  night  by  dif- 
ferent persons  to  the  Duchess  of  Maine." — Mile  Delaimay. 

It  was  at  Sceaux  that,  under  the  Regency^  the  Due  du 
Maine  was  arrested  for  treason,  as  he  was  coming  out  of 
the  chapel,  and  hurried  off  to  a  year's  imprisonment  at 
Dourlans,  at  the  same  time  that  his  wife,  arrested  in  Paris, 
was  taken  to  Dijon.  Upon  the  death  of  the  duke  (1736), 
after  terrible  sufferings  from  a  cancer  in  the  face,  Mme  du 
Maine  ceased  her  political  intrigues  and  devoted  herself 
entirely  to  amusements  and  belles-lettres.  Those  were  the 
brightest  days  of  Sceaux,  when  Fontenelle,  Lamotte^,  Chau- 
lieu,  were  its  constant  guests,  and  more  especially  Voltaire, 
who  had  a  fixed  apartment  in  the  chateau. 

The  Duchesse  du  Maine  died  in  1753.    Her  eldest 


SCEA  UX 


305 


son,  the  Prince  de  Dombes,  was  killed  in  a  duel  with  the 
Marechal  de  Coigny  two  years  after,  but  her  second  son, 
the  Comte  d'Eu,  spent  twenty  years  at  Sceaux  and  greatly 
embellished  it.  After  his  death  the  place  passed  to  his 
cousin,  the  Due  de  Penthievre  (father-in-law  of  the  Prin- 
cesse  de  Lamballe),  whose  gentleman-in-waiting  was  the 
poet  Florian,  who  wrote  part  of  his  Pastorales  at  Sceaux, 
and  died  there.  The  Due  de  Penthievre  gave  Sceaux  to 
his  daughter,  the  Duchesse  d'Orle'ans,  from  whom  it  was 
snatched  by  the  Revolution,  under  which  the  chateau  was 
demolished,  and  the  park  destroyed,  except  a  very  small 
portion. 

This  fragment,  dignified  by  the  name  of  Pare  de  Sceaux^ 
is  entered  at  once  from  the  railway  station.  It  is  appro- 
priated as  a  tea-garden,  but  is  always  open  to  the  public. 

"Sceaux  possesses  another  no  less  powerful  attraction  for 
the  Parisian.  In  the  midst  of  a  garden  whence  some  beautiful 
views  can  be  had,  is  an  immense  rotunda,  open  on  all  sides,  the 
dome,  as  light  as  spacious,  being  supported  by  elegant  pillars. 
This  rustic  canopy  covers  a  dancing  room." — De  Balzac,  "  Z^  bal 
de  Sceaux'' 

The  garden  is  very  quaint  in  its  avenues,  arcades,  and 
circles  of  clipped  limes.  Here,  where  all  other  memorials 
of  the  favorite  son  of  Louis  XIV.  are  destroyed,  one  may 
still  see  the  tomb  of  a  cat  of  the  Duchesse  du  Maine,  in- 
scribed— "  Ci-git  Mar-la-main,  le  roi  des  animaux." 

Close  also  to  the  station  is  the  Churchy  with  a  good 
flamboyant  tower.  The  monogram  of  Colbert,  by  whom 
it  was  rebuilt,  is  to  be  seen  on  the  vaulting  of  the  choir. 
Over  the  high-altar  is  a  group  by  Puget,  representing  the 
Baptism  of  Christ,  which  comes  from  the  chapel  of  the 
Due  du  Maine.  Against  a  pillar  on  the  left  are  propped 
up  the  broken  fragments  of  a  black-marble  monument  in- 


3o6  ^A  YS  A' EAR  PARIS 

scribed  to  "  le  tres-haute  et  tres-puissant  Louis-Auguste  de 
Bourbon,  Due  du  Maine,  Prince  le'gitime  de  France,  1736, 
et  la  tres-haute,  tres-puissante  Princesse  Louise  Be'ne- 
dicite  de  Bourbon,  Princesse  du  Sang,  avec  le  Comte  d'Eu 
leur  fils.  ..."  In  the  churchyard  a  bust  commemorates 
Florian,  who  is  buried  there,  having  been  brought  up  in 
the  house  of  the  Due  de  Penthievre,  nephew  of  the  Due 
du  Maine. 

It  is  5  /'.  from  Sceaux  to  Verrieres  by  Chatenay,  where 
Voltaire  (Frangois  Marie  Arouet)  was  born,  February  20, 
1694.  

The  Chemin  de  Fer  d'Orsay  branches  off  from  that  of 
Sceaux  at  Bourg-la-Reine  and  then  passes — 

1 1  k.  Antony,  a  village  which  belonged  to  the  abbey  of 
St.  Germain  des  Pres  at  Paris  from  the  IX.  c. 

i^k.  Massy. — The  church  has  a  XIII.  c.  portal  and 
heavy  tower.  There  is  an  omnibus  from  this  station  to 
Verrieres.  At  the  Chateau  de  Villegenis  (right)  Prince 
Jerome  Napoleon,  ex-king  of  Westphalia,  died  June  24, 
i860. 

17/^.  Palaiseaii  has  a  handsome  church,  partly  XII.  c. 
and  XIII.  c.  Against  the  inner  wall  of  the  facade  is 
placed  the  tombstone  of  the  family  of  Arnauld  of  Port- 
Royal,  who  were  exhumed  from  the  destroyed  abbey  in 
the  night  of  September  13,  17 10,  and  reburied  fifteen 
years  after,  September  30,  1725.  The  church  tower  is 
connected  with  the  favorite  story  of  La  Pie  Voleuse,  for 
there  it  is  said  that  a  magpie  was  discovered  to  have  hid- 
den the  plate,  for  the  theft  of  which  an  innocent  young 
girl — Ninette — was  condemned,  and  was  just  about  to  be 
executed.  A  pleasant  drive  or  walk  of  i^k.  leads  hence 
to  Versailles   by  {z\k.)  Igny^  where  M.  Tourneaux  has 


ABBA  YE  A  UX  BOIS  307 

built  (1852),  a  fine  chateau  in  the  style  of  the  renaissance  ] 
and  Bievre,  amongst  whose  seigneurs  was  the  Marquis  de 
Bievre  (1747-83)  who  collected  the  Bievriana.  In  a  neigh- 
boring valley  some  farm  buildings  are  all  that  remain  of 
the  Benedictine  ^/^^(2>'<? ////  Val profond  ox  Abbaye  aiix  Bois^ 
which  afterwards  received  the  name  of  Val  de  Grace  from 
Anne  de  Bretagne.  In  162 1  its  nuns  were  removed  to  the 
Faubourg  St.  Jacques  at  Paris.  A  path  turning  aside 
from  the  hill  which  is  ascended  by  the  road  to  Versailles 
leads  to  the  artificial  caves  known  as  Grottes  de  Bievre. 
It  is  of  the  valley  of  Bievre  that  Victor  Hugo  wrote,  in  his 
Feuilles  d^automne — 

"  Une  riviere  au  fond,  des  bois  sur  les  deux  pentes  ; 
La  des  ormeaux,  brodes  de  cent  vignes  grimpantes, 
Des  pres,  ou  le  faucheur  brunit  son  bras  nerveux; 
La  des  saules  pensifs,  qui  pleurent  sur  la  rive, 
Et,  comme  une  baigneuse  indolente  et  naive, 
Laissent  tremper  dans  Feau  le  bout  de  leurs  cheveux  ; 
La  bas,  un  gue  bruyant  dans  les  eaux  poissonneuses. 
Qui  montrent  aux  passants  les  jambes  des  faneuses, 
Des  Carres  de  ble  d'or  ;  des  etangs  en  flot  clair  ; 
Dans  I'ombre,  un  mur  de  craie  et  des  toits  noirs  de  suie  ; 
Les  ocres  des  ravins,  dechires  par  la  pluie  ; 
Et  I'aqueduc  au  loin,  qui  semble  un  pont  de  I'air." 

In  the  church  of  Chilly^  a  little  east,  are  monuments 
of  the  family  of  Effiat.  The  tomb  of  Martin  Ruze'  bears 
his  kneeling  figure  wearing  the  order  of  the  St.  Esprit. 

23  k.  Orsay,  famous  for  the  robber  chieftains  who 
occupied  its  castle  in  the  reign  of  Charles  VI.  and  VII. 
The  existing  chateau  is  surrounded  by  a  moat,  supplied  by 
the  Yvette.  One  of  the  seigneurs  of  the  neighboring 
Bures^  distinguished  in  the  crusades,  was  made  Viceroy  of 
Jerusalem  during  the  captivity  of  Baldwin  II. 

26  k.  Gif. — Some  small  remains  exist  of  the  Bene- 
dictine abbey  of  Notre-Dame  du    Val  de  GiJ\  founded  in 


3o8 


DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 


the  XII.  c,  enclosed  in  the  garden  of  Mme  Edmond 
Adam  (Juliette  Lamber),  the  authoress.  A  crypt  is  of  the 
end  of  the  XL  c. 

2,1  k.  St.  Re7ny. — An  ouiuibus  (20  c.)  meets  all  the 
trains  for  (2  k.)  Chevreuse — Caprosia — (Hotel  de  V Espe- 
rance,  a  pleasant  clean  little  country  inn,  a  good  centre  for 
artists),  a  little  town  nestling  under  a  steep  hill  crowned 
by  the  ruins  of  a  large  chateau — known  in  the  country  side 
as  La  Madeleine  from  its  former  chapel,  ruined  long  before 


iWwm 


CHKVREC'SE. 


the  Revolution.  The  seigneury  of  Chevreuse  was  given 
by  Frangois  I.  to  the  Duchesse  d'Etampes ;  but  after  the 
death  of  Francois  I.  her  domains  passed  to  Claude  de 
Lorraine,  Archbishop  of  Rheims.  In  16 12  Chevreuse  was 
made  a  duchy  for  Marie  de  Rohan-Montbazon,  widow  of 
the  Conn^table  de  Luynes,  whose  second  husband  was 
the  younger  son  of  Balafre,  Due  de  Guise.  From  its  don- 
jon tower,  Racine,  placed  there  by  his  uncle,  the  intendajtt 
of  the  house  of  Luynes,  to  overlook  some  workmen,  meta- 


bAMPIERRE  309 

phorically  dated  his  letter  of  Baby  lone,  January  26,  1661. 
There  are  some  XII.  c.  remains  of  An  Abbey  of  St.  Saturnin 
opposite  the  portal  of  the  church.  No.  14  Rue  de  Ver- 
sailles is  the  curious  Maisofi  des  Bannicres.  The  ascent  to 
the  castle,  with  its  steps  in  wood,  presents  many  pictur- 
esque points  of  view. 

A  carriage  (10  fr.)  may  be  taken  from  Chevreuse  for 
the  excursion  to  Dampierre  and  Vaux-le-Cernay,  and, 
reaching  Chevreuse  in  the  middle  of  the  day,  there  is 
plenty  of  time  for  this,  and  to  return  to  Paris  in  the 
evening. 

In  the  midst  of  the  trim  village  of  (4/^.)  Dampierre, 
handsome  wrought-iron  gates  open  towards  the  chateau  of 
the  Due  de  Luynes,  a  vast  red  and  yellow  building  with 
towers  at  the  angles,  and  great  "  de'pen dances."  It  was 
chiefly  rebuilt  by  J.  H.  Mansart  for  the  Cardinal  de 
Lorraine.  The  chateau  is  backed  by  wooded  hills  and 
green  avenues.  The  buildings  were  restored  in  1840  by 
the  well-known  archaeologist  and  historian  Honore',  Due 
de  Luynes.  Ingres  was  permitted  by  the  duke  to  destroy 
some  fine  works  of  Gleyre  in  the  gallery,  but  the  frescoes 
with  which  the  great  artist  began  to  replace  them  were  so 
indelicate  that  his  work  at  Dampierre  was  speedily  cut 
short.  Amongst  the  treasures  of  the  chateau  is  a  silver 
statue  by  Rude  of  Louis  XIII.  as  a  child ;  but  the  interior 
of  the  building  is  not  usually  shown.  The  late  duke, 
famous  for  his  love  of  art,  died  of  his  service  in  the  papal 
ambulance  after  the  battle  of  Mentana. 

The  pretty  scenery  of  the  Yvette  near  Levy-St.-Nom 
and  Mesnii-St. -Denis  may  be  visited  from  hence,  and  one 
may  return  to  Paris  from  the  station  of  Verrieres.  (See 
Ch.  XVIL) 

Beyond  Dampierre  is  good  French  home  scenery — 


3lD 


DA  YS  NEAR  PARIS 


woods  alternating  with  open  fields  sprinkled  with  fruit 
trees.  Beyond  the  pretty  village  of  Senlisse,  which  has  an 
old  church,  and  a  moated  XVI.  c.  manor-house,  the  car- 
riage should  be  left  at  Le  Grafid  Moulin^  and  regained  at 
another  old  mill,  and  Le  Repos  des  Artistes,  five  minutes 
further  on.  A  path  leads  along  the  right  bank  of  the 
Yvette,  through  a  little  wood  painted  by  a  thousand  artists, 
full  of  great  stones  stained  with  crimson  lichen,  between 
which  the  Yvette  tosses  in  little  rapids  (called  here  les  cas- 
cades) to  a  limpid  sheet  of  water  in  the  more  open  ground. 
2  k.  further,  io>^.  from  Chevreuse,  is  the  village  of 
Vaux-le-Cer?iay  [Au  Rendez-vous  des  Artistes — a  good  artist- 
inn),  below  which,  reached  through  an  old  gateway  close 
to  a  chateau,  are  the  remains  of  the  abbey  of  which  Guy 
de  Montfort,  bishop  of  Carcassone,  was  abbot,  and  Pierre 
des  Vallees-Cernay,  historian  of  the  Albigensian  war,  was 
a  monk.  To  enter  the  grounds  it  is  necessary  to  have 
written  beforehand  to  the  proprietor,  the  Baroness  Nathaniel 
de  Rothschild,  33  Faubourg  St.  Honore,  but  the  ruined 
church  with  its  noble  rose-window,  is  well  seen  from  the 
road. 

"The  abbey  of  Vaux-le-Cernay  was  a  purely  agricultural 
establishment.  Founded  in  1128,  the  plan  displays  the  simplicity 
of  arrangement  and  the  regularity  of  building  of  the  edifices 
established  by  Citeaux  ;  always  four  open  chapels,  to  the  east  in 
the  transept,  and  as  at  Citeaux  a  square  apse.  The  large  building 
which  prolongs  the  transept  contained  on  the  ground-floor  the 
chapter-house, the  sacristy,  parlors,  &c.,  and,  above,  the  dormitory. 
Near  the  entrance,  is  a  very  large  grange.  The  dove-house  is  at 
a  distance  from  the  cloister,  in  the  vast  outbuildings  which 
surround  the  abbey." — Viollet-le-Duc. 

The  abbey  of  Vaux-le-Cernay  was  an  especially  coveted 
possession.  The  poet  Desportes  possessed  it,  but  without 
interfering  with  any  spiritual   government.       Henri   III, 


va  ux-le-cerna  y 


31J 


asked  him  why  he  had  refused  the  archbishopric  of  Bor- 
deaux ;  he  replied  that  he  dreaded  the  charge  of  souls. 
"'Voire,'  dit  le  roi,  ' et  vous  etes  abbe' !  N'avez-vous  pas 
charge  des  ames  de  vos  moines?'  'Non'  re'pondit  Des- 
portes,  'car  ils  n'eii  ont  point.'"  Another  abbot  commen- 
datory was  Henri  de  Bourbon  de  Verneuil,  bastard  of 
Henri  IV.,  who,  after  a  nominal  rule  of  sixty  years,  threw 
it  up  to  marry  at  the  age  of  sixty-nine  ;  it  was  then  given 


AT  VAUX-LE-CERNAY. 


to  King  Casimir  of  Poland,  who  had  abdicated  to  take 
orders. 

Pedestrians  who  wish  to  vary  their  return  to  Paris  may 
join  the  line  to  Rambouillet  at  Les  Essarts  du  Roi. 

40  k.  Lifnours  has  a  good  XVI.  c.  church.  The  cha- 
teau, "des  mignons  et  des  raignonnes  des  rois  de  France," 
was  destroyed  at  the  Revolution.  Anne  de  Pisseleu,  Diane 
de  Poitiers,  and  the  Due  de  Joyeuse  were  amongst  its 
owners.  At  4  k.  east,  passing  Forges-les-Bains,  is  Briis, 
where  a  large  square  tower,  with  a  round  tourelle  attached 


312 


I)A  YS  NEAR  PARIS 


to  it,  is  called  the  Tour  d^Anne  de  Boleyn,  and  is  pointed 
out  as  the  remnant  of  a  convent  where  the  unfortunate 
Queen  of  England  lived  in  her  youth.  When  she  came 
over  to  France  as  maid  of  honor  to  Princess  Mary  on  her 
marriage  with  Louis  XII.,  she  was  left  by  her  father  to 
complete  her  education  at  Briis.  It  is  supposed  that  a 
convent  was  chosen  here  for  that  purpose^  because  her  an- 
cestor, Walter  de  Boleyn,  was  vassal-kinsman  to  the  lord 
of  Briis  in  1344.^ 

^  See  Strickland's  Queens  of  England,  iv.  167. 


XVII. 

MEUDON,  BELLEVUE,  FORT  ROYAL,  RAM- 
BOUILLET. 

THE  Gave  MoJiipamasse  is  on  the  boulevard  Mont- 
parnasse,  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Seine,  at  a  great 
distance  from  the  hotels  usually  frequented  by  English 
visitors.  The  trains  as  far  as  Versailles  run  every  half- 
hour  from  6.35  till  9.5  A.M. ;  after  10.5  at  every  hour. 

The  places  to  the  right  of  the  carriages  are  best  for  the 
view. 

6/?".  Clamart,  after  which  the  railway  passes  beneath 
the  fort  of  Issy.  On  the  left  the  villages  of  Val  and  Fleiiry 
are  seen,  then  Meudon  with  its  terrace.  On  the  right 
there  is  a  fine  view  over  the  valley  of  the  Seine,  with  Paris, 
the  Bois  de  Boulogne,  Mont  Valerien,  St.  Cloud,  and 
Sevres.  The  gorge  of  Val-Fleiiry  is  crossed  before  reach- 
ing— 

Zk.  Metidoft.  It  is  an  ascent  of  i|/^.  from  the  station, 
in  a  straight  line,  to  the  famous  Terrace  of  Meudon,  which 
is  always  open  to  the  public,  and  which  has  incomparably 
the  most  beautiful  and  pictorial  view  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Paris.  To  the  left  the  great  mass  of  the  city  is  seen, 
backed  by  the  heights  of  Montmartre  and  by  fainter  blue 
distances.  The  dome  of  the  Invalides  glitters  to  the  right 
of  the  windings  of  the  Seine  with  its  bridges,  and,  further 


314 


PA  VS  N^AR  PARIS 


to  the  right,  southern  Paris  extends  into  long  lines  of 
houses  for  miles,  only  broken  by  St.  Sulpice,  St.  Germain, 
the  Pantheon,  and  the  Val  de  Grace ;  further  still  to  the 
right,  the  wooded  hill  in  the  foreground  is  surmounted  by 
ih^  Hospice  de  Fleury.  In  the  deep  hollow  below  is  the 
pretty  little  town  of  Meudon,  with  its  old  houses,  and  rich 
masses  of  chestnut  and  acacia  foliage  around  the  XVI,  c. 
church,  interesting  from  its  association  with  Francois  Ra- 
belais, son  of  a  publican,  who,  born  (1485)  on  a  metairie 
near  Chinon,  died  cure  of  Meudon,  though  he  never  re- 
sided or  performed  any  ecclesiastical  duty  there. 

The  Cardinal  de  Lorraine,  who  bought  Meudon  from 
the  famous  Duchesse  d'Etampes,  mistress  of  Frangois  I., 
built  a  chateau  here  from  designs  of  Philibert  Delorme. 
This  chateau,  says  Corrozet,  "  was  a  house  furnished  forth 
with  columns,  busts,  paintings,  grotesques,  compartments 
and  devices  of  blue  and  gold,  and  more  colors  than  it  is 
possible  to  mention."  The  heirs  of  the  cardinal  sold  his 
chateau  to  Servient,  Surintendant  de  Finances  from  1664 
to  1669,  who  made  the  fine  terrace  above  the  village. 
From  his  son,  Meudon  passed  to  Louvois,  minister  of 
Louis  XIV.,  from  whose  widow  it  was  bought  by  the  king. 

"The  king,  accustomed  to  rule  in  his  family,  as  much,  at 
least,  as  over  his  courtiers  and  his  people,  and  who  always 
wanted  to  have  them  assembled  beneath  his  eyes,  did  not  view 
with  pleasure  the  gift  of  Choisy  to  Monseigneur,  and  the  frequent 
visits  he  made  there  with  the  small  number  of  those  whom  he, 
individually,  invited  to  accompany  him.  It  made  a  division  in 
the  court  which,  at  his  son's  age,  could  not  be  avoided  after  the 
gift  of  this  house  had  produced  it,  but  he  wished,  at  least,  to 
bring  him  nearer  to  him.  Meudon,  much  larger,  and  made  ex- 
tremely magnificent  by  the  millions  that  M.  de  Louvois  had  sunk 
there,  seemed  to  him  fitting  for  this  end.  He  proposed  an  ex- 
change to  Barbesieux  for  his  mother,  who  had  taken  it  in  her 
share  at  a  value  of  500,000  livres,  and  bade  him  to  offer  her  400,- 


MEUDOJSt  ^^t 

ooo  livres  more  and  Choisy  to  boot.  Mme  de  Louvois,  for  whom 
Meudon  was  too  large  and  too  difficult  to  fill,  was  ravished  at  re- 
ceiving goo, ooo  livres  with  a  house  more  suited  to  her,  and  other- 
wise very  agreeable,  and  on  the  same  day  that  the  king  proposed 
the  exchange,  it  was  concluded.  The  king  had  not  acted  without 
having  spoken  to  Monseigneur,  to  whom  the  slightest  appearance 
of  a  wish  was  an  order.  Mme  de  Louvois  afterwards  passed  her 
summers  in  good  company  at  Choisy,  and  Monseigneur  flitted 
more  and  more  from  Versailles  to  Meudon,  where,  in  imitation 
of  the  king,  he  made  many  improvements  in  the  house  and  gar- 
dens, and  put  a  climax  to  the  marvels  which  the  Cardinals  de 
Meudon  and  de  Lorraine  and  MM.  Servient  and  de  Louvois  had 
successively  added." — St.  Simon,  ''  Me'moires,''  1695. 

The  son  of  Louis  XIV.  was  never  called  Dauphin. 

"  Monseigneur  was  Monseigneur  all  his  life,  and  the  name  of 
Dauphin  eclipsed.  He  is  the  first  and  only  Monseigneur,  quite 
short,  that  was  ever  known." — St.  Simon. 

After  he  became  the  owner  of  Meudon,  Monseigneur 
lived  there  whenever  he  could  escape  from  the  Court,  and 
amused  himself  in  the  creation  of  gardens  and  buildings, 
as  his  father  did  at  Versailles  :  he  especially  loved,  by- 
taking  refuge  at  Meudon,  to  avoid  the  tedious  monotony 
of  the  Voyages  de  Marly.  His  morganatic  wife,  known 
by  the  name  of  Mile  Chouin,^  resided  at  Meudon,  united 
to  him  {c.  1695)  in  secret  bonds  of  matrimony,  as  Mme 
de  Maintenon  was  to  Louis  XIV.,  but  occupied  a  very 
different  position,  living  in  one  of  the  attics  of  the  house, 
and  seen  by  none  but  Monseigneur.  The  king  never 
came  to  Meudon  (which,  after  all,  he  disliked  as  alien- 
ating his  son  from  the  Court)  till  he  was  summoned 
thither  (171 1)  by  the  news  of  Monseigneur's  dangerous 
illness.  Then  he  established  himself  there  till  his  son's 
death  (from  small-pox),  which  was  very  sudden  at  the 
last. 

^  Marie  Emilie  Jolyde  Chouin,  ob.  1732, 


3i6 


DA  YS  NkAR  PARIS 


"April  i6,  1711. — What  a  spectacle,  madame,  when  I  arrived 
at  Monseigneur's  grand  cabinet.  The  king,  seated  on  a  couch, 
without  shedding  a  tear,  but  shuddering  and  trembling  from  head 
to  foot ;  Mme  the  Duchess  in  despair,  Mme  the  Princess  de  Conti 
torn  with  grief,  all  the  courtiers  silent,  interrupted  by  sobs  and 
cries  that  we  heard,  and  made  us  in  the  chamber  every  moment 
believe  that  he  was  expiring." — Mme  de  Mainteiion  a  la  Ftincesse 
des  Ursins. 

"While  the  king  was  quietly  supping,  those  in  the  chamber 
of  Monseigneur  began  to  lose  their  heads.  Fagon  and  the  others 
piled  remedy  on  remedy  without  effect.  The  cure,  who  came 
every  evening  before  going  home  to  learn  the  news,  found,  con- 
trary to  custom,  all  the  doors  open  and  the  valets  distracted.  He 
entered  the  chamber,  where,  seeing  what  had  only  too  lately  been 
in  question,  he  ran  to  the  bed,  took  Monseigneur's  hand,  spoke 
to  him  of  God,  and,  seeing  him  quite  conscious,  but  unable  to 
speak,  drew  from  him  what  he  could  for  a  confession,  of  which 
nobody  had  thought,  and  suggested  acts  of  contrition.  The  poor 
prince  repeated  some  words  distinctly,  others  confusedly,  beat 
his  breast,  pressed  the  clergyman's  hand,  appeared  penetrated 
with  the  best  sentiments,  and  received  absolution  from  him  with 
a  contrite  and  anxious  air. 

"  Meanwhile  tlie  king  was  rising  from  table,  and  almost  fell 
backwards,  when  Fagon,  coming  in,  cried  out,  in  great  trouble, 
that  all  was  lost.  Judge  of  the  terror  that  seized  every  one  at 
this  so  sudden  transition  from  entire  security  to  the  most  hope- 
less extremity. 

"The  king,  almost  beside  himself,  at  once  started  for  Mon- 
seigneur's apartment  and  reprimanded  severely  the  indiscreet 
zeal  of  some  courtiers  who  tried  to  restrain  him,  saying  he  wished 
to  see  his  son  again,  and  asking  if  there  were  no  further  remedies. 
When  he  was  about  to  enter  the  room,  the  Princess  de  Conti, 
who  had  had  time  to  run  to  Monseigneur's  chamber  in  the  brief 
interval  after  supper,  presented  herself  to  prevent  his  entrance. 
She  pushed  him  back  with  her  hands,  and  told  him  that  now  he 
must  think  of  himself.  Then  the  king,  almost  overcome  by  a 
change  so  sudden  and  so  complete,  let  himself  be  led  to  a  sofa 
near  the  entrance  door  of  the  cabinet  by  which  he  had  entered, 
and  which  opened  on  the  chamber.  He  asked  every  one  who 
came  out  for  news,  without  any  one  daring  to  reply.  While  he 
had  been  coming  down  to  Monseigneur's  rooms,  for  he  was 
lodged  above  him,  he  had  sent  for  Father  Tellier,  who  had  just 


ME U DON 


317 


gone  to  bed,  but  rose,  was  quickly  dressed,  and  came  to  the 
chamber  ;  but  it  was  too  late,  as  all  the  domestics  have  said 
since,  although  the  Jesuit,  perhaps  to  console  the  king,  assured 
him  that  he  had  given  him  well-founded  absolution.  Mme  de 
Maintenon  hastened  to  the  king,  and,  sitting  on  the  same  sofa, 
strove  to  weep.  She  tried  to  take  the  king  away,  as  the  carriages 
were  already  waiting  in  the  court,  but  it  was  impossible  to  make 
him  take  this  resolution  till  Monseigneur  had  expired. 

"His  agony — he  was  unconscious — lasted  nearly  an  hour 
after  the  king  entered  the  cabinet.  Mme  the  Duchess  and 
Mme  the  Princess  de  Conti  were  divided  between  their  care 
for  the  dying  man,  and  their  care  for  the  king,  to  whom  they  often 
came,  while  the  faculty  perplexed,  the  servants  distracted,  the 
courtiers  whispering,  were  pushing  each  other  about,  and  walk- 
ing incessantly,  almost  without  changing  their  places.  At  last 
the  fatal  moment  came.     Fagon  came  out  to  announce  it. 

"  The  king,  in  deep  affliction,  was  led  away  by  Mme  de  Main- 
tenon  and  the  two  princesses.  He  entered  his  carriage  with  dif- 
ficulty, supported  on  each  side,  Mme  de  Maintenon  immediately 
afterwards,  who  placed  herself  beside  him.  Mme  the  Duchess 
and  Mme  the  Princess  de  Conti  entered  after  her,  and  sat  on  the 
front  seat.  A  crowd  of  Monseigneur's  officers  flung  themselves 
on  their  knees  the  whole  length  of  the  court,  on  each  side,  as  the 
king  passed,  begging  him  with  strange  outcries  to  have  pity  on 
them,  who  had  lost  everything  and  were  dying  of  hunger." — 
St.  Sifn  on,  "  Me  moires , "  1 7 1 1 . 

In  the  reign  of  Louis  XV.,  the  Duchesse  de  Berry  ex- 
changed Amboise  for  Meudon,  which  was  reunited  to  the 
crown  in  1726.  In  1736,  Stanislaus,  king  of  Poland,  was 
lodged  here.  In  1789,  the  first  Dauphin,  son  of  Louis 
XVI.,  died  here.  During  the  Revolution  the  older  cha- 
teau was  transformed  into  a  fortress,  and  Napoleon  I. 
pulled  it  down,  using  some  of  its  marbles  in  building  the 
arch  of  the  Place  du  Carrousel.  A  second  chateau,  which 
had  been  built  by  the  second  Dauphin,  was  repaired  and 
intended  to  be  used  as  a  college  for  kings  !  Marie  Louise 
and  the  King  of  Rome  lived  there  during  the  Russian  cam- 
paign.     Afterwards   (1S33)   Pedro,   king  of  Portugal,  his 


3i8  DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 

daughter,  Dona  Maria,  the  Due  d'Orleans,  and  Marshal 
Soult,  inhabited  it  in  turn.  Under  the  second  empire  it 
was  the  residence  of  Jerome  Napoleon,  once  king  of  West- 
phaUa.  It  was  destroyed  during  the  German  war  of  1870, 
and  the  terraces  are  now  the  only  memorials  of  the  two 
chateaux.  Only  the  lower  terrace  is  open  to  the  public  : 
at  the  end  is  an  observatory. 

At  Meudon,  during  the  Reign  of  Terror,  there  was  a 
tannery  of  human  skins,  "  such  of  the  guillotined  as  seemed 
worth  flaying,  of  which  perfectly  good  wash-leather  was 
made."^  The  skin  of  the  men  was  superior  in  toughness 
{consistance)  and  quality  to  chamois,  that  of  the  women  was 
good  for  almost  nothing,  being  so  soft  in  texture.^ 

Le  Bois  de  Meudon  is  a  favorite  resort  of  Parisian 
pedestrians.  Mme  Roland  used  to  be  brought  thither  in 
her  childhood. 

"On  Sunday,  at  five  in  the  morning,  every  one  was  up.  A 
light  dress,  fresh  and  simple,  some  flowers,  a  gauze  veil,  pro- 
claimed the  day's  projects.  The  odes  of  Rousseau,  a  volume  of 
Corneille,  or  some  one,  formed  all  my  baggage.  The  three  of  us 
[herself,  father,  and  mother]  set  out.  We  were  to  embark  at  the 
Pont  Royal,  which  I  saw  from  my  windows,  in  a  little  boat  which, 
in  the  silence  of  a  rapid  and  gentle  sail,  brought  us  to  the  banks 
of  Bellevue,  not  far  from  the  glass-works.  Thence,  by  steep 
paths,  we  reached  the  Avenue  de  Meudon.  .  .  .  Dinner  took 
place  in  one  of  the  Swiss  cottages  in  the  park.  .  .  .  Dear  Meu- 
don !  How  often  have  I  breathed  under  your  shades,  blessing 
the  author  of  my  existence,  and  longing  for  what  might  one  day 
complete  it,  but  with  that  charm  of  a  desire  without  impatience, 
which  only  colors  the  clouds  of  the  future  with  the  rays  of  hope  ! 
How  often  have  I  loved  to  repose  under  these  tall  trees,  not  far 
from  the  clearings,  where  I  saw  the  timid  and  nimble  fawn  pass- 
ing !  I  remember  the  more  sombre  spots,  where  we  passed  the 
heats  of  noon  ;  then,  while  my  father  lying  on  the  grass,  and  my 
mother  reclining  on  a  heap  of  leaves  I  had  prepared,  surrendered 

1  Montgaillard,  iv.  290. 

^  See  Carlyle's  French  Revolutions  iii.  7, 


'  BELLE  V  UE  ■?  1 0 

themselves  to  an  after-dinner  sleep,  I  contemplated  the  majesty 
of  thy  silent  woods,  I  admired  nature,  I  adored  the  Providence 
whose  benefactions  I  felt." — ''' Mdmoiresy 

"  Pourquoi  pas  montes  sur  des  anes  ? 
Pourquoi  pas  au  bois  de  Meudon? 
Les  severes  sont  les  profanes  ; 
Ici  tout  est  joie  et  pardon, 

Rien  n'est  tel  que  cette  ombre  verte, 
Et  que  ce  calme  un  peu  moqueur, 
Pour  aller  a  la  decouverte 
Tout  au  fond  de  son  propre  coeur. 

Tout  chante  ;  et  pas  de  fausses  notes. 
L'hymne  est  tendre  ;  et  I'esprit  de  corps 
Des  fauvettes  et  des  linottes 
Eclate  en  ces  profonds  accords." — Victor  LLtigo. 

Louis  XVI.  was  hunting  at  Meudon  on  October  6,  1789, 
the  very  day  of  the  attack  of  the  people  of  Paris  upon 
Versailles,  and  Marie  Antoniette  had  to  send  messengers 
to  hasten  his  return,  so  that  he  might  reach  the  palace 
before  the  expected  arrival  of  the  furies  of  the  Halles.^ 

A  charming  walk  of  i  k.  leads  from  the  end  of  the  ter- 
race at  Meudon,  down  a  lime  avenue  to  Bellevue  (a 
restaurant  on  the  way,  good  but  dear). 

9^.  Bellevue  (Hotel  de  la  Tete  Noire). — Here  Mme  de 
Pompadour,  admiring  the  view  from  the  hill  above  the  left 
bank  of  the  Seine,  built  a  chateau  (1748-50),  which  Louis 
XV.  frequently  used  as  a  residence,  and  which  he  purchased 
in  1757.  After  the  death  of  Louis  XV.  the  chateau  became 
the  private  residence  of  his  daughters — Mesdames,  Tantes 
du  Roi — till  their  flight  before  the  coming  Revolution  in 
1791. 

"  Mesdames,  the  king's  aunts,  left  Bellevue  at  the  beginning 
of  the  year  1791.     I  went  to  take  leave  of  Madame  Victoire.     I 

1  Memoires  de  Weber, 


320 


DAYS  NEAR  PARIS 


did  not  think  that  I  saw  for  the  last  time  of  my  life  that  august 
and  venerable  protectress  of  my  early  )'Outh.  She  received  me, 
alone  in  her  cabinet,  and  assured  me  that  she  hoped  as  well  as 
desired,  to  return  soon  to  France  ;  that  the  French  would  be 
much  to  blame  if  the  excesses  of  the  revolution  rose  to  such  x 
height  that  she  would  have  to  prolong  her  absence.  I  knew  from 
the  queen  that  the  departure  of  Mesdames  was  judged  necessary, 
to  leave  the  king  free  in  his  actions,  since  he  would  be  forced  to 
remove  with  his  famil}'." — Mme  Canipan,  ''  iMe??ioires.'' 

The  chateau  of  Mesdames  was  sold  during  the  Revo- 
lution, and  has  been  almost  entirely  destroyed.  The  only 
remaining  fragment,  now  known  as  Brimborion  (a  pavilion 
inhabited  by  Louis  XV.  whilst  the  chateau  was  building), 
is  in  private  hands.  A  fine  view  over  Paris  (though  inferior 
to  that  from  Meudon,  turning  to  the  left  from  the  station 
and  taking  the  second  turning  to  the  right)  is  to  be  obtained 
from  the  terrace  at  the  end  of  the  Avenue  Me'lanie. 

"  One  day,  the  Dauphin  (son  of  Louis  XV.)  was  leaning  on 
the  grand  balcony  of  the  chateau  of  Bellevue,  with  his  eyes  fixed 
on  Paris  ;  a  friend  who  saw  him  often,  drew  near,  and  said  to 
him,  '  M.  the  Dauphin  has  a  pensive  air!'  'I  was  thinking,' 
replied  the  prince,  'on  the  delight  a  sovereign  ought  to  feel  in 
making  the  happiness  of  so  many  people.'  " — Morceaux  historiques. 

The  chapel  of  Notre  Da7ne  des  Flammes,  near  the  station, 
commemorates  a  terrible  railway  accident  of  May  8,  1842, 
when  a  train  of  eighteen  carriages  was  thrown  off  the  line, 
set  on  fire  by  the  engine,  and  forty-five  persons  were  burnt 
to  death. 

13  /^.  Chaville  possessed  a  magnificent  chateau,  built  by 
Louvois,  but  it  was  utterly  destroyed  at  the  Revolution. 

14^.  Viroflay. — There  is  a  pleasant  walk  from  hence  to 
Versailles  (4^.)  hy  Jouy  and  Biic. 

\Zk.  Versailles.  (See  Chap.  II.)  Continuing  the  same 
line  to  Rambouillet  we  pass — 

22  k.  Saint-Cyr, — This  place  derives  its  name  from  the 


ST.    CYR  321 

little  Gaulish  Christian  Cyrus,  who  was  thrown  from  a  rock 
by  the  Roman  governor,  at  three  years  old,  for  refusing  to 
change  his  religion  after  the  martyrdom  of  his  mother. 
A  convent  afterwards  existed  here.  But  St.  Cyr  was  of  no 
importance  till  Mme  de  Maintenon  received  it  as  a  wed- 
ding present  from  Louis  XIV.,  and  transferred  hither  the 
college  for  indigent  young  ladies  of  noble  birth,  which  she 
had  previously  instituted  in  the  Chateau  de  Noisy  near 
Versailles,  and  which  she  placed  under  the  care  of  her 
friend,  Mme  de  Brinon,  an  ex-Ursuline  nun.  Mansart  was 
employed  by  Louis  XIV.  to  build  the  immense  edifice, 
v/hich  still  exists,  to  please  Mme  de  Maintenon. 

"  Her  taste  for  St.  Cyr  seemed  to  be  unable  to  grow  more 
keen,  ahd  it  did  so  every  day.  The  more  good  she  did  there,  the 
more  she  wished  to  do.  Surrounded  by  all  the  pleasures  of  the 
court,  she  found  a  thousand  pretexts  to  quit  them.  St.  Cyr  con- 
soled her  for  all  her  trials.  She  did  not  fear,  in  leaving  the  king, 
to  find  him  on  her  return  less  attentive  or  less  obliging  ;  she  had 
not  that  curiosity  about  affairs  that  always  fears  to  lose  the  thread 
of  them.  She  hated  visits  to  Fontainebleau,  because  they  sepa- 
rated her  too  long  from  her  family,  for  she  often  said  that  she  had 
no  other  than  that  of  St.  Cyr.  'When  shall  I  see  mvself,' she 
wrote  to  the  Superior,  '  at  that  great  table,  where,  surrounded  by 
all  my  daughters,  I  am  more  at  ease  than  at  the  royal  banquets?' 
Of  all  the  verses  made  in  her  praise,  the  four  worst  ones  were  the 
only  ones  that  pleased  her,  because  she  found  St.  Cyr  alluded  to. 

"  '  Elle  voit  les  honneurs  avec  indifference  : 

Son  coeur  de  vains  desirs  n'est  jamais  combattu  : 
Sa  maison  meme  de  plaisance 
Est  une  ecole  de  vertu,'" 
De  la  Beaumelle,  '^  Me'moires  de  Mme  de  Mahitenon" 

In  order  to  obtain  admittance  to  St.  Cyr  it  was  neces- 
sary to  prove  four  degrees  of  nobility  on  the  paternal  side. 
The  number  of  pupils  was  restricted  to  250,  the  mistresses 
were  forty,  and  there  were  forty  '•  soeurs  converses  "  for 
the  service  of  the  house.     Whilst  Mme  de  Maintenon  was 


222  DAYS  NEAR  PARIS 

Still  living  at  Versailles,  she  often  amused  Louis  XIV.  by- 
making  the  young  ladies  of  St.  Cyr  get  up  one  of  the 
newly  written  plays  of  Racine,  and  act  them  in  his  pres- 
ence. Mme  de  Sevigne  describes  seeing  the  performance 
of  Esther. 

"  21  Feburary,  i68g.  I  paid  my  court  the  other  day  at  St. 
Cyr  more  agreeably  than  I  could  have  imagined.  We  found  our 
places  reserved.  I  was  on  the  second  line  behind  the  duchesses. 
....  We  listened,  the  Marechal  de  Bellefond  and  I,  to  this 
tragedy  with  an  attention  that  was  remarked,  and  some  well 
placed  but  veiled  eulogies.  I  cannot  tell  you  how  exceedingly 
agreeable  the  piece  was  ;  it  is  not  easy  to  represent,  and  will 
never  be  repeated  ;  it  is  a  combination  of  music,  verses,  songs, 
and  persons,  so  perfect  and  complete  that  it  left  nothing  to  be 
desired  ;  the  girls  who  played  the  kings  and  the  other  characters, 
seemed  made  for  it  ;  the  attention  was  general,  and  the  only 
trouble  was  that  of  seeing  so  fine  a  tragedy  terminate  ;  everything 
in  it  is  sublime  and  touching  ;  the  fidelity  to  sacred  history  in- 
spires respect  ;  all  the  songs  suited  the  words,  that  were  taken 
from  the  Psalms  or  Wisdom,  and  as  introduced  in  the  piece,  were 
singularly  beautiful.  The  approbation  given  to  the  piece  is  a 
measure  of  taste  and  attention.  I  was  charmed,  and  the  Mare- 
chal also,  who  left  his  place  to  go  and  tell  the  king  how  pleased 
he  was,  and  that  he  was  by  the  side  of  a  lady  worthy  of  having 
seen  Esther.  The  king  came  to  our  seats,  and,  turning,  addressed 
himself  to  me  :  '  Madame,  I  am  informed  that  you  are  pleased.' 
Without  being  astonished,  I  replied  :  '  Sire,  I  am  charmed  ;  words 
cannot  express  my  feelings.'  The  king  rejoined:  'Racine  has 
great  talent.'  I  said  :  '  Sire,  he  has  much  talent,  but,  in  truth, 
these  young  persons  have  much  also  ;  they  enter  into  the  subject 
as  if  they  had  never  done  anything  else.'  'Ah,  yes,'  he  replied, 
'  that  is  true.'  And  then  his  Majesty  went  away,  and  left  me  the 
object  of  env)'- ;  as  if  there  was  no  new-comer  but  I,  as  it  were, 
the  king  was  pleased  to  see  my  sincere  admiration  without  noise 
or  displa3^" 

Mme  de  Maintenon  ruled  the  institution  of  Saint  Cyr 
as  an  autocrat,  even  during  the  lifetime  of  Louis  XIV. 
When  he  was  upon  his  deathbed,  as  soon  as  he  had  lost 
consciousness^  she  obeyed  his  wishes,  by  retiring  there 


ST.    CYR  323 

altogether,  probably  to  avoid  complications  with  his  family, 
having  lost  those  members  of  it  who  were  fond  of  lier,  and 
having  reason  to  distrust  the  rest.  The  day  after  she 
reached  St.  Cyr,  the  king  died.  Mile  d'Aumale  came  into 
her  room  and  said,  "  Madame,  toute  la  communaute'  est  k 
I'eglise.'  She  understood,  rose  silently,  and  went  herself 
to  the  church,  where  the  office  of  the  dead  was  being  re- 
cited. The  king  had  left  her  nothing  in  his  will,  but  had 
simply  recommended  her  to  the  care  of  his  nephew,  after- 
wards Regent.  The  Due  d'Orle'ans  was  worthy  of  this 
confidence.  A  few  days  after  the  king's  death,  he  paid  her 
a  visit,  and  continued  her  pension  of  48,000  livres,  in- 
serting in  the  brevet  that  "  son  rare  de'sinteressement  la  lui 
avait  rendue  necessaire." 

The  retreat  of  Mme  de  Maintenon  was  once  inter- 
rupted. When  the  Czar  Peter  came  to  France  in  17 17, 
he  insisted  upon  seeing  the  woman  who,  for  thirty  years, 
had  played  such  an  important  part  in  the  world.  She 
comically  describes  the  interview  in  a  letter  to  Mme  de 
Caylus. 

"July  II,  1717.  The  Czar  arrived  at  seven  in  the  evening. 
He  sat  himself  at  my  bed-head.  He  asked  me  if  I  was  sick  ;  I 
answered,  yes.  He  asked  me  what  ailed  me  ;  I  replied,  '  Ad- 
vanced old  age.'  He  did  not  know  what  to  say,  and  his  inter- 
preter did  not  seem  to  understand.  His  visit  was  very  short.  .  .  . 
He  had  the  curtains  at  the  foot  of  my  bed  opened,  in  order  to  see 
me  ;  you  can  believe  he  would  be  satisfied." 

The  disgrace  of  the  Due  du  Maine,  whose  governess 
she  had  been,  and  whom  she  had  brought  up  as  her  own 
child,  was  a  bitter  affliction  to  Mme  de  Maintenon.  She 
could  not  rally  from  it.  "  Mourir  est  le  moindre  evene- 
ment  de  ma  vie,"  she  said  one  day  to  Besse,  her  doctor. 
She  had  no  illness,  only  experienced  "  une  grande  difficulte 


324 


DAYS  NEAR  PARIS 


de  vivre."    One  day  when  Besse  had  forbidden  her  to  eat, 
she  wrote  to  Mme  de  Glapion,  Superior  of  St.  Cyr  : 

"  J'ai  beau  dire  que  j'ai  beaucoup  d'appetit  et  point  de  mal  : 

Fagon,  en  des  maux  plus  presents, 

M'abandonnait  a  ma  sagesse, 
Et  pour  un  rien,  Saint-Cyr,  de  concert  avec  Besse, 

Me  refuse  des  aliments  ! 
Et  voila  ce  que  c'est  qu'avoir  quatre-vingts  ans. 

Ordonnez   done,   ma   chere    fille,    qu'on   m'envoie  ce  que  je  de- 
mande.     Voulez-vous  que  la  posterite  dise — 

'  Cette  femme  qui,  dans  son  temps. 
Fit  un  si  brillant  personnage, 
Eut  a  Saint-Cyr  beaucoup  d'enfants, 
Et  mourut  faute  d'un  potage.'  " 

Mme  de  Glapion  answered  by  sending  the  potage,  with 
these  lines — 

"  Que  Besse  en  veuille  a  Glapion, 
Malgre  la  Faculte  vous  serez  obeie. 

Vous,  mourir  d'inanition  ! 
Eh  !  de  tons  vos  enfants  la  grande  passion 

Serait  de  vous  donner  leur  vie." 

The  Due  de  Noailles,  who  had  married  her  niece,  was 
present  at  the  deathbed  of  Mme  de  Maintenon.  "  Adieu, 
men  cher  due,"  she  said.  "  Dans  quelques  heures  d'ici, 
je  vais  apprendre  bien  des  choses."  She  died  April  15, 
1719.  She  had  desired  to  be  simply  buried  in  the  church- 
yard of  St.  Cyr.  But  the  Due  de  Noailles  erected  a 
magnificent  tomb  to  her  in  the  middle  of  the  choir,  which 
was  destroyed  in  the  Revolution.  Neither  of  her  two 
husbands  was  mentioned  in  her  epitaph. 

"  Mme  de  Maintenon  retired  to  St.  Cyr,  at  the  instant  of  the 
king's  death,  and  had  the  good  sense  to  deem  herself  dead  to  the 
world,  and  never  to  set  foot  out  of  the  cloister  of  that  house. 
She  did  not  wish  to  see  any  one  from  outside,  asked   nothing. 


ST.    CYR 


325 


recommended  no  one,  nor  mixed  in  anything  where  her  name 
could  be  involved. 

"  Mme  de  Maintenon,  besides  her  chamber-women — for  no 
man-servant  entered  the  cloister — had  two  or  sometimes  three  old 
maids,  and  six  young  girls,  attached  to  her  chamber,  and  both 
old  and  young  were  sometimes  changed.  As  at  court,  she  rose 
early  and  went  to  bed  betimes.  Her  prayers  lasted  long  ;  she 
read  also  works  of  devotion  ;  sometimes  she  had  a  little  history 
read  by  these  young  girls,  and  amused  herself  by  making  them 
discuss  it  and  by  instructing  them.  She  heard  mass  from  a 
tribune  against  her  chamber,  often  several  offices,  but  verj''  rarely 
in  the  choir.  She  communicated  twice  a  week,  usually  between 
seven  and  eight  in  the  morning,  and  then  returned  to  her  tribune, 
where,  on  these  days,  she  remained  for  a  long  time. 

"  She  nominated  all  the  superiors,  both  the  first  and  her  sub- 
alterns, and  all  the  officials.  A  succinct  account  of  current 
events  was  rendered  to  her  ;  but,  as  regards  everything  beyond 
that,  the  first  superior  took  her  orders  from  her.  She  was  Ma- 
dame, quite  short,  in  the  house,  where  everything  was  in  her 
hand,  and  although  she  had  good  and  pleasant  manners  with  the 
ladies  of  St.  Cyr,  and  displayed  kindness  to  the  young  girls,  all 
trembled  before  her.  Very  rarely,  indeed,  did  she  see  any  one 
except  the  superiors  and  the  officials,  unless  it  happened  that  she 
sent  for  some  one,  or,  more  seldom  still,  Avhen  some  one  ventured 
to  demand  an  audience,  which  she  did  not  refuse.  The  first  su- 
perior came  to  her  when  she  liked,  but  did  not  abuse  her  privi- 
lege ;  she  gave  her  an  account  of  everything,  and  received  orders 
about  everything.  ]Mme  de  Maintenon  saw  few  but  her.  No 
abbess,  though  a  daughter  of  France,  as  there  used  to  be,  was 
ever  so  absolute,  so  punctually  obeyed,  so  feared,  so  respected, 
and,  with  this,  she  was  loved  by  almost  all  who  were  inmates  of 
St.  Cyr.  The  priests  from  outside  were  just  as  submissive  and 
just  as  dependent.  Never  did  she  speak,  in  the  presence  of  her 
young  ladies,  of  anything  that  could  allude  to  the  government  or 
the  court  ;  very  often,  however,  she  spoke  of  the  late  king  with 
praise,  but  without  exaggeration,  and  never  a  word  about  in- 
trigues, cabals,  or  business." — St.  Simon,  '' Me'moires," 

"Mme  de  Maintenon  kept  in  a  lofty  room,  wainscoted  with 
oak,  without  paint,  and  furnished  in  v^arnished  leather  through- 
out. Before  each  seat  there  was  a  square  of  tapestr)^  to  place 
under  the  feet,  because  there  was  not  even  a  carpet  on  the  floor, 
so  simple  was  the  furniture." — Souvenirs  de  Marquise  de  Cr^qui, 


326  ^A  YS  NEAR  PARIS 

The  Emperor  Napoleon  L  restored  St.  Cyr — pillaged 
at  the  Revolution — as  a  military  school.  Its  enormous 
monotonous  white  buildings,  with  high  slated  roofs,  con- 
tain 350  pupils,  and  it  annually  gives  about  140  young  offi- 
cers to  the  army.  The  greater  part  of  the  former  gardens 
are  now  a  Champ  de  Mars.  A  black-marble  slab  in  the 
chapel  covers  the  remains  of  Mme  de  Maintenon,  collected 
after  the  Revolution,  and  is  inscribed — "  Cy-git  Mme  de 
Maintenon,  1635-1719-1826."^ 

28^.  Trappes,  ^k.  south  (by  the  Bois  de  Trappes),  is 
the  site  of  the  famous  Abbey  of  Port  Royal  des  Champs.^ 

"  He  whose  journe}-  lies  from  Versailles  to  Chevreuse  will 
soon  find  himself  on  the  brow  of  a  steep  cleft  or  hollow,  inter- 
secting the  monotonous  plain  across  which  he  has  been  passing. 
The  brook  which  winds  through  the  verdant  meadows  beneath 
him,  stagnates  into  a  large  pool,  reflecting  the  mutilated  gothic 
arch,  the  water-mill,  and  the  dovecot  which  rise  from  its  banks  ; 
with  tbe  farm-house,  the  decayed  towers,  the  forest-trees,  and  in- 
numerable shrubs  and  creepers,  which  clothe  the  slopes  of  the 
valley.  France  has  many  a  lovelier  prospect,  though  this  is  not 
without  its  beauty  ;  and  many  a  field  of  more  heart-stirring  inter- 
est, though  this,  too,  has  been  ennobled  by  heroic  daring  ;  but 
through  the  length  and  breadth  of  that  land  of  chivalry  and  of 
song,  the  traveller  will  in  vain  seek  a  spot  so  sacred  to  genius,  to 
piety,  and  to  virtue.  In  those  woods  Racine  first  learnt  the  lan- 
guage— the  universal  language — of  poetry.  Under  the  roof  of 
that  humble  farm-house,  Pascal,  Arnauld,  Nicole,   De  Saci,  and 

^  Her  original  epitaph,  of  great  length,  in  Latin  and  French,  contained  the 
words — 

"  Ici  repose  tres  illustre  dame,  madame  Franfoise  d'Aubigne,  marquise  de 
Maintenon,  dame  d'atour  de  Christine-Victoire  de  Baviere,  dauphine  de  France. 
.  .  .  Aussi  perseveramment  que  sagement  chere  a  Louis-le-Grand.  Femme 
excellente  au-dela  de  toutes  les  femmes  de  son  siecle  et  de  plusieurs  precedents. 
.  .  .  Une  seconde  Esther  par  la  raaniere  dont  elle  a  su  plaire  au  roi ;  une  se- 
conde  Judith  par  I'amour  de  la  retraite  et  roraison  avec  ses  cheres  filles.  Pau- 
vre,  au  milieu  des  richesses,  par  la  liberalite  envers  les  miserables  ;  humble,  au 
combls  de  sa  gloire,  par  son  affection  pour  la  modestie  chr^tienne.  Elle  est  de- 
cedee  le  15  av^ril,  1719,  ag(^e  de  83  ans." 

-  Port  Royal  may  be  reached  by  the  omnibus  which  runs  between  Verriferes 
and  Massy  on  the  line  from  Paris  to  Limours. 


PORT  ROYAL  327 

Tillemont,  meditated  those  works  wliicli,  as  long  as  civilization 
and  Christianity  survive,  will  retain  their  hold  on  the  gratitude 
and  reverence  of  mankind.  There  were  given  innumerable 
proofs  of  the  graceful  good-humor  of  Henri  IV.  To  this  seclu- 
sion retired  the  heroine  of  the  Fronde,  Anne  Genevieve,  Duchess 
of  Longueville,  to  seek  the  peace  which  the  world  could  not  give. 
Mme  de  Sevigne  discovered  here  a  place  'tout  propre  a  inspirer 
le  desir  de  faire  son  salut.'  " — Sir  James  Stephen. 

The  Benedictine  abbey  of  Port  Royal  was  founded  in 
1204,  by  Eudes  de  Sully,  Bishop  of  Paris.  It  was  a  poor 
abbey  and  only  intended  for  twelve  nuns.  The  lords  of 
Montmorency  and  Montfort  were  its  principal  benefactors. 
Gradually  it  increased  in  prosperity.  Honorius  III. 
authorized  the  celebration  of  the  sacred  office  within  its 
walls,  even  when  the  whole  countr}'  might  lie  under  inter- 
dict, and  a  nun  was  permitted  to  keep  seven  fragments  of 
the  wafers  consecrated  on  her  profession,  and  with  them 
to  administer  the  Holy  Sacrament  to  herself  on  as  many 
successive  days.  Still,  for  four  centuries.  Port  Royal  was 
not  remarkable.  In  the  XVI.  c.  the  rule  of  the  convent 
had  greatly  relaxed  when  Marie-Ange'lique,  one  of  the 
twenty  children  of  Antoine  Arnauld,  having  become  a  nun 
at  eight,  was  appointed  abbess  at  eleven  years  old  (in  1602), 
her  sister  Agnes,  of  five  years  old,  becoming  abbess  of  St. 
Cyr.  Six  years  later,  the  young  abbess  of  Port  Royal  be- 
came its  reformer. 

"  A  capucin  monk  who  had  left  his  convent  on  account  of  his 
libertine  life,  and  who  turned  apostate  in  foreign  lands,  coming 
by  chance  to  Port  Royal  in  1608,  was  asked  by  the  abbess  and 
her  nuns  to  preach  in  their  church.  He  did  so,  and  the  scoundrel 
preached  with  such  force  on  the  happiness  of  a  religious  life,  on 
the  beauty  and  holiness  of  the  rule  of  Saint  Benedict,  that  the 
young  abbess  was  exceedingly  moved.  She  formed  the  resolu- 
tion, not  only  to  practice  the  rule  in  all  its  rigor,  but  even  to  em- 
ploy all  her  efforts  to  make  her  nuns  observe  it.  .  .  .  In  less  than 
five  years  community  of  goods,  fasting,  abstinence  from  meat, 


32$ 


DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 


silence,  vigils,  in  fine,  all  the  austerities  of  the  rule  of  Saint  Bene- 
dict were  established  at  Port  Ro)'al." — Racine. 

The  abbess  Angelique  secluded  Port  Royal  from  the 
world,  and  herself  set  the  example  of  cutting  off  unneces- 
sary communication  with  it,  by  refusing  admittance  to  her 
own  parents  and  her  sister  Mme  le  Maitre,  when  they 
came  to  visit  her  one  day  ever  after  known  as  "  la  journe'e 
du  guichet." 

"  How  deep  was  the  peace,  how  holy  the  spirit  of  humility  and 
retirement,  how  pure  and  spiritual  the  temperance  and  self-denial, 
and  how  fervent  and  zealous  the  spirit  of  charity  which  reigned 
within  the  walls  of  its  enclosure.  In  this  truly  admirable  com- 
munity might  be  seen  united  a  rare  example  of  industr}%  inspired 
by  charity,  and  continued  without  intermission  or  relaxation  ;  of 
prayer  without  any  suspension  ;  of  faith,  bearing  continual  and 
abundant  fruits.  In  this  society  ambition  had  no  place,  nor  was 
any  contention  found,  but  who  should  fill  up  the  most  vile,  the 
most  laborious,  the  most  humiliating  offices.  No  impatience  was 
to  be  discovered  in  the  sisters,  nor  any  caprice  in  the  mothers  : 
and  it  might  be  truly  said  that,  in  this  blessed  community,  Chris- 
tian love  burnt  with  a  bright,  a  burning,  a  clear  and  steady  flame  ; 
alike  rendering  obedience  prompt,  command  reasonable,  and  de- 
votion to  God  all  in  all. 

"  But  nothing  ever  approached  to  the  complete  and  entire  dis- 
interestedness which  so  eminently  characterized  Port  Ro3"al,  and 
which,  from  the  abbess  to  the  last  of  the  servants,  glowed  as  one 
soul,  with  an  open  and  munificent  generosity." — Schinunelpen- 
ninck. 

"  Simplicity  in  the  church,  modesty  in  the  domestics,  silence 
in  the  parlors,  little  anxiety  of  the  nuns  to  maintain  conversation, 
little  curiosity  to  learn  the  news  of  the  world  and  even  the  affairs 
of  their  kindred,  ceaseless  labor  and  continual  prayer." — Racine. 

"The  august  Majesty  of  God  made  itself  felt  in  this  holy 
place.  Jesus  Cfhrist  present  on  the  altar  was  adored  continuall}^ 
night  and  day,  without  interruption.  The  holy  mysteries  were 
offered  with  a  holy  awe  which  was  religious  and  full  of  faith.  The 
ardent  love  that  these  pious  women  had  for  Christ  made  them 
desire  without  ceasing  to  receive  frequently  the  Divine  Eucharist, 
with  a  fervor  and  a  fire  of  which  the  activity  was,  nevertheless, 


PORT  ROYAL  329 

sometimes  checked  by  a  keen  feeling  of  luimility  and  penitence." 
—Petitpicd. 

The  success  which  crowned  the  labors  of  the  brave 
Angelique  for  the  reformation  of  her  own  abbey  led  to  her 
being  employed  in  the  reform  of  other  religious  houses, 
especially  that  of  Maubuisson,  which  had  fallen  into  great 
licence  under  the  rule  of  a  sister  of  the  famous  Gabrielle 
d'Estrdes.  Many  of  the  nuns  from  this  convent  after- 
wards sought  a  refuge  at  Port  Royal,  but  fever  soon  drove 
them  from  the  over-crowded  buildings,  and  the  whole 
community  was  obliged  to  take  refuge  in  the  Rue  St. 
Jacques  at  Paris,  where  a  house  had  been  purchased  for 
them  by  Mme  Arnauld,  mother  of  the  Mere  Ange'lique. 
Here — in  the  ^'  Convent  of  Port  Royal  de  Paris  " — it  was 
that  they  became  intimate  with  Saint-Cyran,  then  a  pris- 
oner at  Vincennes,  and  that  they  first  began  to  follow  him 
and  Jansenius  as  their  teachers. 

Meanwhile,  the  deserted  buildings  of  Port  Royal  des 
Champs  were  occupied  by  three  nephews  of  the  Mere 
Ange'lique,  the  brothers  Lemaitre,  one  of  whom,  Simon 
Lemaitre  de  Sacy,  had  translated  the  Bible,  and  Terence ; 
and  another,  Antoine,  w^as  famous  as  an  advocate. 

"Their  example  attracted  five  or  six  others,  both  secular 
persons  and  ecclesiastics,  who,  being,  like  them,  disgusted  with 
the  world,  came  to  be  companions  in  their  penitence.  It  was 
not,  however,  an  idle  penitence  ;  while  some  looked  after  the 
temporal  affairs  of  the  abbey  and  labored  to  re-establish  its  affairs, 
the  others  did  not  disdain  to  cultivate  the  land,  like  common  day 
laborers  ;  they  even  repaired  part  of  the  buildings  that  had  fallen 
into  ruin,  and,  by  raising  those  that  were  too  low  and  too  much 
in  the  ground,  rendered  life  in  this  desert  more  healthy  and  more 
comfortable  than  it  had  been. 

"  Life  at  Port  Royal  was  ascetic  and  singularly  laborious. 
The  recluses  rose  at  three  in  the  morning.  After  matins  and 
lauds  they  kissed  the  ground  after  the  manner  of  the  Chartreux, 
and  then  passed  long  hours  in  prayer.     They  drank  cider  and 


330  J^A  YS  NEAR  PARIS 

water,  one  only  excepted.  Some  wore  hair-shirts  ;  all  slept  on 
straw.  .  .  .  Devotional  exercises,  nevertheless,  did  not  absorb 
all  the  time  of  the  recluses.  To  rescue  from  the  Jesuits  the  educa- 
tion of  the  young — that  is  to  say,  of  the  future — they  established 
at  Port  Royal  the  schools  which  made  its  glory,  and  which  gave 
Racine  to  France.  Lancelot  was  pre-eminently  the  teacher, 
Nicole  seconded  him,  and  Antoine  Lemaistre  did  not  disdain  to 
weary  his  eloquent  voice  in  the  service  of  an  audience  of  children. 
There  were  hours  devoted  to  manual  labor,  to  prune  the  trees,  to 
look  after  the  crops.  But  what  ought  to  immortalize  the  em- 
ployment of  so  many  solemn  days  is  all  the  learned  works 
which  literature  and  education  owe  to  Port  Royal.  Thus  they 
lived  happy  and  proud  and  intoxicated  with  hpavenly  hoping. 
Sometimes,  at  the  decline  of  day,  they  climbed  the  heights,  and 
made  the  echoes  of  the  valley  resound  with  their  hymns." — Louis 
Blanc,    ''Hist,  de  la  revolution  francaisc." 

Arnauld  d'Andilly,  father  of  the  Mere  Angelique,  had 
now  joined  the  band  of  recluses  known  as  the  *'  soHtaires 
de  Port-Royal."  With  his  companions,  who  included  the 
well-known  author  Nicole,  and  the  hellenist  Lancelot,  he 
also  devoted  himself  to  the  work  of  education.  Amongst 
their  pupils  the  most  illustrious  was  Jean  Racine,  who 
became  the  historian  of  a  community  in  which  his  sister 
had  taken  the  veil,  and  to  which  his  mother  had  retired. 
Many  of  the  best  known  literary  works  of  the  age  ema- 
nated from  Port  Royal.  The  Logique  of  Arnaud;  the 
Traites  rudimentaires  of  Lancelot ;  the  Ethiques  of  Nicole  ; 
the  Histoire  ecclesiastique  of  Lenain  de  Tillemont,  were 
written  there.  The  abbey  became  a  famous  school,  in 
which  statesmen  were  proud  of  having  studied.  "  lis  sont 
marques  au  coin  de  Port-Royal,"  became  a  phrase  of 
literary  or  religious  commendation. 

Twenty  years  had  elapsed  since  the  flight  of  the  nuns 
from  the  malaria  of  Port  Royal,  when  St.  Cyran,  who  guided 
their  actions  from  his  prison  at  Vincennes,  bade  them 
return.    "  If  the  site  was  unhealthy,  it  was  as  easy  to  serve 


PORT  ROYAL  331 

God  in  a  hospital  as  in  a  church,  and  no  prayers  were  more 
acceptable  to  Him  than  those  of  the  afflicted."  The  Mere 
Angelique  answered,  that  in  a  church,  where  the  presence 
of  angels  and  an  ever  holier  Power  had  once  rested,  it 
must  be  resting  still,  and  therefore  she  would  do  his  bid- 
ding. Many  of  her  nuns  accompanied  her.  They  were 
welcomed  by  the  "solitaires,"  who  included  the  nearest 
relatives  of  the  abbess.  This  was  their  only  meeting.  The 
men  returned  to  the  farm  of  Les  Granges  :  the  gates  of  the 
abbey  were  closed  upon  the  nuns.  Gradually  the  report 
of  the  holy  atmosphere  of  Port  Royal  des  Champs  led 
many  great  persons,  weary  of  the  turmoil  of  life,  to  establish 
themselves  in  their  neighborhood.  The  Due  and  Duchesse 
de  Luynes  built  a  chateau  there,  and  the  Duchesses  de 
Liancourt  and  de  Longueville  made  frequent  retreats  at 
the  abbey. 

"  Bound  by  no  monastic  vows,  the  men  addressed  themselves 
to  such  employments  as  each  was  supposed  best  qualified  to  fill. 
Schools  for  the  instruction  of  youth  in  every  branch  of  literature 
and  science  were  kept  by  Lancelot,  Nicole,  Fontaine,  and  De 
Saci.  Some  labored  at  the  translation  of  the  Fathers,  and  other 
works  of  piety.  Arnauld  plied  his  ceaseless  toils  in  logic,  geom- 
etry, metaphysics,  and  theological  debate.  Ph)'sicians  of  high 
celebrity  exercised  their  art  in  all  the  neighboring  villages.  Le 
Maitre  and  other  eminent  lawyers  addressed  themselves  to  the 
work  of  arbitrating  in  all  the  dissensions  of  the  vicinage.  There 
were  to  be  seen  gentlemen  working  assiduously  as  vine-dressers  ; 
officers  making  shoes  ;  noblemen  sawing  timber  and  repairing 
windows  ;  a  society  held  together  by  no  vows,  governed  by  no 
corporate  laws,  subject  to  no  common  superior,  pursuing  no  joint 
designs,  yet  all  living  in  unbroken  harmony  ;  all  following  their 
respective  callings,  silent,  grave,  abstracted,  self-afflicted  by  fast- 
ings, watchings,  and  humiliations — a  body  of  penitents  on  their 
progress  through  a  world  which  they  had  resolved  at  once  to  serve 
and  to  avoid. 

"Like  the  inhabitants  of  Les  Granges,  the  nuns  employed 
themselves  in  educating  the  children  of  the  rich  and   poor,  in 


332  DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 

almsgiving,  and  in  other  works  of  mercy.  Angelique,  as  abbess, 
exhibited  a  princely  spirit  of  munificence — nourished  and  sus- 
tained by  the  most  severe  and  self-denying  economy.  She  and 
her  sisterhood  reserved  for  themselves  little  more  than  a  place  on 
their  own.list  of  paupers.  So  firm  was  her  reliance  on  the  Divine 
bount}^  and  so  abstemious  her  use  of  it,  that  she  hazarded  a  long 
course  of  heroic  improvidence,  justified  by  the  event  and  ennobled 
by  the  motive  ;  but  at  once  fitted  and  designed  rather  to  excite  the 
enthusiasm  of  ordinary  mortals,  than  to  aflford  a  model  for  their 
imitation.  Wealth  was  never  permitted  to  introduce,  nor  poverty 
to  exclude,  any  candidate  for  admission  as  a  novice  or  a  pupil. 
On  one  occasion  twenty  thousand  francs  were  given  as  a  relief  to 
a  distressed  community  ;  on  another,  four  timas  that  sum  was 
restored  to  a  benefactress,  whose  heart  repented  a  bounty  which 
she  had  no  longer  the  right  to  reclaim.  Their  regular  expenditure 
exceeded  by  more  than  sevenfold  their  certain  income  ;  nor  were 
they  ever  disappointed  in  their  assurance,  that  the  annual  defi- 
ciency of  more  than  forty  thousand  francs  would  be  supplied  by 
the  benevolence  of  their  fellow-Christians." — Sir  James  Stephen. 

As  advocate  to  Parliament,  Antoine  Arnauld,  the  father 
of  the  Mere  Angelique,  had  pleaded  before  the  Sorbonne 
for  the  expulsion  of  the  Jesuits.  This  is  supposed  to  have 
been  the  first  cause  of  the  remorseless  vindictiveness  of 
the  Jesuits  against  his  family.  Arnauld  also  had  praised 
the  Augiistinus  of  Jansenius,  a  Flemish  bishop,  unknown 
to  ordinary  readers,  in  which  the  Jesuits  pretended  that 
five  heretical  propositions  were  to  be  found,  attacking  the 
mystery  of  divine  grace.  The  very  existence  of  these 
propositions  in  the  work  he  had  approved  was  utterly 
denied  by  Arnauld.  On  this  insignificant  subject  arose  the 
great  quarrel  of  Jesuits  and  Jansenists.  The  work  of 
Jansenius  had  been  condemned  by  the  Pope,  and  the 
Port-Royalists  were  condemned  by  the  Jesuits  for  not 
finding  in  that  w^ork  the  passages  which  the  Pope  said  were 
to  be  found  there.  Anne  of  Austria  was  appealed  to,  and 
sent  her  officers  to  eject  the  nuns  and  recluses  of  Port  Royal, 


PORT  ROYAL  333 

but  for  the  time  the  abbey  was  saved  by  an  apparent 
miracle.  Mile  Perrier,  niece  of  Blaise  Pascal,  a  scholar 
eleven  years  old,  was  apparently  cured  oi  fistula  lacrymalis 
upon  her  eye  being  touched  by  a  thorn  from  the  Holy 
Crown  preserved  at  Port  Royal !  The  Court  surgeon  con- 
firmed the  truth  of  the  story,  and  the  queen-mother  revoked 
her  mandate  against  the  place  to  which  so  great  a  grace  had 
been  granted. 

The  quarrel  between  the  Jesuits  and  the  Port-Royalists 
lasted  sixty  years,  during  which  the  Jesuits  represented 
scholastic,  the  Jansenists  spiritual,  religion.  During  this 
time  Blaise  Pascal,  who  had  joined  the  recluses  of  Port 
Royal  des  Champs,  published  his  Lettres  Proviiiciales.  This 
for  a  time  assisted  to  ward  off  the  fall  of  the  abbey,  but  at 
length  an  edict  was  obtained  from  Louis  XIV.,  closing  its 
schools,  and  forbidding  the  further  admission  of  postulants 
to  the  convent.  The  number  of  the  nuns  was  reduced  by 
three-fourths. 

At  this  time  the  Mere  Angelique  was  in  extreme  old  age. 
She  went  to  die  in  the  convent  at  Paris,  and  on  her  arrival 
found  the  royal  officers  already  in  possession  and  employed 
in  dispersing  the  inmates.  But  she  was  permitted  to  expire 
within  the  monastic  walls,  and  was  brought  back  for  burial 
to  Port  Royal  des  Champs,  where  the  spot  selected  for  her 
grave  was  just  outside  the  grille  of  the  nuns'  choir. 

After  the  death  of  their  mother,  the  society  of  Port 
Royal,  both  at  Paris  and  in  the  country,  underwent  renewed 
persecution  from  the  Archbishop  of  Paris.  "  They  may  be 
pure  as  angels,"  he  said,  "but  they  are  proud  as  devils," 
and  he  set  himself  to  grind  them  to  submission.  But  the 
Port-Royalists  found  a  new  defender  in  Anne  Genevieve  de 
Bourbon,  Duchesse  de  Longueville  (sister  of  the  great 
Conde  and  the  Prince  de  Conti),  the  heroine  of  the  Fronde, 


334  DAYS  NEAR  PARIS 

who,  at  the  close  of  its  cruel  and  last  war,  had  retired  to 
the  valley  of  Port  Royal,  and  whose  disinterested  and  gen- 
erous conduct  had  obtained  for  her  not  only  the  pardon, 
but  the  reverence  of  Louis.  By  the  personal  influence  of 
the  duchess  with  the  king,  and  by  her  eloquent  letters  to 
the  pope  (Clement  IX.),  the  imprisoned  Port-Royalists  were 
set  at  liberty  and  the  abbey  and  schools  were  reopened. 
Mme  de  Longueville  herself  came  to  reside  permanently 
at  Port  Royal,  in  a  hotel  which  she  built  close  to  the  abbey. 
It  was  here  that  she  heard  of  the  death  of  her  son,  killed 
in  battle  in  1672. 

"Mme  de  Longueville  breaks  one's  heart,  .  .  .  Mile  de 
Vertus  returned  two  days  ago  to  Port  Royal,  where  she  is  almost 
always  ;  they  went  in  quest  of  her  with  M.  Arnauld,  to  tell  her 
this  terrible  news.  Mile  de  Vertus  had  only  to  show  herself — her 
sudden  return  sufficiently  indicated  something  fatal.  In  fact,  as 
soon  as  she  appeared  :  '  Ah  !  Mademoiselle,  how  is  my  brother?  ' 
Her  thoughts  dared  not  go  further.  '  Madame,  he  is  recovering 
from  his  wound  ;  there  has  been  a  battle.'  '  And  my  son  ?  '  There 
was  no  answer.  '  Ah  !  Mademoiselle,  my  son,  my  dear  child — an- 
swer me — is  he  dead?'  'Madame,  I  have  no  words  to  answer 
you.'  *  Ah  !  my  dear  son,  he  was  killed  on  the  field  ?  had  he  not 
a  single  moment  ?  O,  my  God,  what  a  sacrifice  ! '  and  then  she  fell 
on  her  bed,  and  all  that  the  keenest  grief  could  do — convulsions, 
a  deadly  silence,  suppressed  cries,  bitter  tears,  appeals  to  Heaven, 
tender  and  piteous  complaints — she  experienced  them  all.  She 
sees  certain  people,  takes  some  soup,  because  God  willed  it.  She 
has  no  repose  ;  her  health,  already  very  bad,  is  visibly  altered. 
As  for  me,  my  wish  for  her  is  death,  as  I  do  not  see  that  she  can 
live  after  such  a  loss." — Mdic  dc  Se'vigne,  ''''  Lettres." 

Ten  years  of  rest  passed  over  the  valley,  in  which  the 
most  distinguished  of  the  original  recluses  died,  and  were 
laid  in  its  peaceful  cemetery,  with  Racine,  the  warrior 
Prince  de  Conti,  and  the  Due  de  Liancourt,  who  had  also 
sought  a  retreat  there.  In  1679  th^  Duchesse  de  Longue- 
ville also  died.  Mme  de  Maintenon,  herself  governed  by  the 


PORT  ROYAL  335 

Jesuits,  was  now  ruling  the  conduct  of  Louis  XIV.,  the  dis- 
reputable Harlay  was  Archbishop  of  Paris,  and  Port  Royal, 
bereft  of  all  powerful  protectors,  was  doomed.  The  famous 
recluses  were  banished,  the  nuns  were  despoiled  of  their 
estates,  they  were  interdicted  the  sacraments  of  the 
Church,  and  on  October  29,  1709,  the  last  fifteen  remain- 
ing nuns  were  driven  out  of  their  convent  by  an  armed 
force,  some  being  so  old  and  infirm  that  they  had  to  be 
carried  away  in  litters,  and  died  from  their  removal. 

"  In  a  grey  autumnal  morning,  a  long  file  of  armed  horse- 
men, under  the  command  of  D'Argenson,  was  seen  to  issue  from 
the  woods  which  overhung  the  ill-fated  monastery.  In  the  name 
of  Louis  he  demanded  and  obtained  admission  into  that  sacred 
enclosure.  Seated  on  the  abbatial  throne,  he  summoned  the 
nuns  into  his  presence.  They  appeared  before  him  veiled,  silent, 
and  submissive.  Their  papers,  their  title-deeds,  and  their  prop- 
erty were  then  seized,  and  proclamation  made  of  a  royal  decree 
which  directed  their  immediate  exile.  It  was  instantly  carried  into 
effect.  Far  and  wide  along  the  summits  of  the  neighboring  hills 
might  be  seen  a  thronging  multitude  of  the  peasants  whom  they 
had  instructed,  and  of  the  poor  whom  they  had  relieved.  Bitter 
cries  of  indignation  and  of  grief,  joined  with  fervent  prayers, 
arose  from  these  helpless  people,  as,  one  after  another,  the  nuns 
entered  the  carriages  drawn  up  for  their  reception.  Each  per- 
sued  her  solitary  journey  to  the  prison  destined  for  her.  Of 
these  venerable  women,  some  had  passed  their  eightieth  year, 
and  the  youngest  was  far  advanced  in  life.  Laboring  under 
paralysis  and  other  infirmities  of  old  age,  several  of  them  reached 
at  once  their  prisons  and  their  graves.  Others  died  under  the 
distress  and  fatigues  of  their  journey.  Some  possessed  energies 
which  no  sufferings  could  subdue.  Mme  de  Renicourt,  for  ex- 
ample, was  kept  for  two  years  in  solitary  confinement ;  in  a  cell, 
lighted  and  ventilated  only  through  the  chimney  ;  without  fire, 
society,  or  books.  '  You  may  persecute,  but  you  will  never 
change  Mme  de  Renicourt,'  said  the  archbishop  ;  'for  [such  was 
his  profound  view  of  the  phenomenon]  she  has  a  square  head, 
and  people  with  square  heads  are  always  obstinate.' 

"  Last  in  the  number  of  exiles  appeared,  at  the  gates  of  the 
abbey,   the  prioress,   Louise  de   St.   Anastasie  Mesnil    de  Cour- 


336  I)A  YS  NEAR  PARIS 

tiaux.  She  had  seen  her  aged  sisters  one  by  one  quit  forever 
the  abode,  the  associates,  and  the  emplo3^ments  of  their  lives. 
To  each  she  had  given  her  parting  benediction.  She  shed  no 
tears,  she  breathed  no  murmur,  nor  for  a  moment  betrayed  the 
dignity  of  her  office,  nor  the  constancy  of  her  mind.  '  Be  faith- 
ful to  the  end,'  were  the  last  words  which  she  addressed  to  the 
last  companion  of  her  sorrows.  And  nobly  did  she  fulfil  her 
own  counsels.  She  was  conducted  to  a  convent,  where,  under  a 
close  guard,  she  was  compelled  to  endure  the  utmost  rigors  of  a 
jail.  Deprived  of  all  those  religious  comforts  which  it  is  in  the 
power  of  man  to  minister,  she  enjoyed  a  solace,  and  found  a 
strength,  which  it  was  not  in  the  power  of  man  to  take  away.  In 
common  with  the  greater  part  of  her  fellow-sufferers,  she  died  with- 
out any  priestly  absolution,  and  was  consigned  to  an  unhallowed 
grave.  They  died  the  martyrs  of  sincerity  ;  strong  in  the  faith 
that  a  lie  must  ever  be  hateful  in  the  sight  of  God,  though  infalli- 
ble popes  should  exact  it,  or  an  infallible  Church,  as  represented 
by  cardinals  and  confessors,  should  persuade  it. 

"  Unsatiated  by  the  calamities  of  the  nuns,  the  vengeance  of 
the  enemies  of  Port  Royal  was  directed  against  the  buildings 
where  they  had  dwelt,  the  sacred  edifice  where  they  had  wor- 
shipped, and  the  tombs  in  which  their  dead  had  been  interred. 
The  monastery  and  the  adjacent  church  were  overthrown  from 
their  foundations.  Workmen,  prepared  by  hard  drinking  for 
their  task,  broke  open  the  graves  in  which  the  nuns  and  recluses 
of  former  times  had  been  interred.  With  obscene  ribaldry,  and 
outrages  too  disgusting  to  be  detailed,  they  piled  up  a  loathsome 
heap  of  bones  and  corpses,  on  which  dogs  were  permitted  to 
feed.  What  remained  was  thrown  into  a  pit,  prepared  for  the 
purpose,  near  the  neighboring  churchyard  of  St.  Lambert.  A 
wooden  cross,  erected  by  the  villagers,  marked  the  spot  ;  and 
many  a  pilgrim  resorted  to  it,  to  pray  for  the  souls  of  the  de- 
parted, and  for  his  own.  At  length  no  trace  remained  of  the 
fortress  of  Jansenism  to  offend  the  e3^e  of  the  Jesuits,  or  to  per- 
petuate the  memory  of  the  illustrious  dead  with  whom  they  had  so 
long  contended.  The  mutilated  gothic  arch,  the  water-mill,  and 
the  dovecot,  rising  from  the  banks  of  the  pool,  with  the  decayed 
towers  and  the  farm-house  on  the  slopes  of  the  valley,  are  all  that 
now  attest  that  it  was  once  the  crowded  abode  of  the  wise,  the 
learned,  and  the  good.  In  that  spot,  however,  may  still  be  seen 
the  winding  brook,  the  verdant  hills,  and  the  quiet  meadows — 
Nature's  indestructible  monuments  to  the  devout  men  and  women 


PORT  ROYAL 


337 


who  nurtured  there  affections  which  made  them  lovely  in  their 
lives,  and  hopes  which  rendered  them  triumphant  in  death." 
— Sir  James  Stephen. 

"  The  queen  mother,  and  the  king  more  than  she  aftervvards, 
seduced  by  the  Jesuits,  allowed  themselves  to  be  persuaded  by 
them  of  the  exact  and  precise  contradictory  of  the  truth  ;  that  is, 
that  every  other  school  except  theirs  was  hostile  to  the  royal  au- 
thority, and  had  no  other  spirit  than  that  of  independence  and  re- 
publicanism. The  king  knew  no  more  than  a  child  about  this  or 
many  other  things.  .  .  .  They  succeeded,  then,  in  disposing  of  him 
at  their  pleasure  by  pricking  his  conscience,  and  his  jealousy  for 
his  authority  over  everything  that  concerned  this  affair,  and, 
further,  over  everything  that  had  the  slightest  indication  that  way, 
that  is,  over  everything  and  everybody  whom  it  pleased  them  to 
indicate  as  on  that  side. 

"  By  these  means  they  dispersed  those  holy  illustrious  soli- 
taries whom  study  and  penitence  had  gathered  at  Port  Royal,  and 
who  made  such  great  disciples  ;  to  whom  Christians  will  be  ever 
indebted  for  those  famous  works  that  have  diffused  so  bright 
and  solid  a  light,  to  discriminate  truth  from  appearances,  the  nec- 
essary from  the  bark,  by  touching  with  the  finger  a  region  so 
little  known  and  so  obscured,  and,  besides,  so  disguised,  by  en- 
lightening faith,  kindling  charity,  developing  man's  heart,  regu- 
lating his  morals,  offering  him  a  faithful  mirror,  and  guiding 
him  between  just  fear  and  reasonable  hope.  It  was,  then,  to 
persecute  them  to  the  last  remnant  and  everywhere,  that  the 
devotion  of  the  king  and  of  Mme  de  Maintenon  conforma- 
bly with  his  was  exercised  till  another  field  seemed  more  fitted 
to   be   brought    before    this    prince." — St.    Simon,    '' Me'moii-cs,'' 

1715- 

"  I  do  not  wish  to  say  that,  as  regards  the  solitaries  of  Port 
Royal,  the  charge  of  Jansenism  was  altogether  baseless  ;  but 
their  doctrines,  to  the  extent  to  which  the  masters  of  the  school 
professed  them,  were  certainly  inoffensive.  Whatever,  too,  were 
the  opinions  of  the  solitaries,  their  morals  were  irreproachable. 
As  much  could  not  be  said  of  their  adversaries.  This  war,  de- 
clared against  an  institution  which  had  made  itself  known  only 
by  its  merits,  whose  members  aspired  to  no  power,  is  one  of  the 
saddest  pages  in  the  history  of  the  XVII.  century.  On  the  side  of 
Port  Ro3'al  were  virtue,  conscience,  light,  great  works  ;  on  the 
side  of  their  adversaries  was  craft.  It  was  craft  that  triumphed." 
— P.  Barren',  ''  Les  ^crivains  fran^ais.'^ 


338 


DA  YS  NEAR  PARIS 


It  was  in  January,  1710,  that  the  destruction  of  the 
buildings  of  Port  Royal  was  ordered  by  royal  edict,  and, 
in  17 12,  the  church  was  pulled  down.  The  bodies  of  the 
Arnauld  family,  of  Racine,  De  Saci,  and  Lemaitre  had  al- 
ready been  removed  by  their  relations,  but  the  tombs  of 
the  other  Port-Royalists  were  desecrated  and  their  remains 
exhumed. 

Port  Royal  is  now  the  property  of  the  Due  de  Luynes, 
who  has  cleared  out  the  area  of  the  noble  church  (built  by 


"=^1^ 


PORT   ROYAL. 


the  architect  of  Amiens  cathedral),  showing  the  bases  of 
its  columns.  A  walnut  tree  is  pointed  out  as  contempo- 
rary with  the  Mere  Angelique,  and  a  well  which  is  called 
"lafontaine  de  la  Mere  Angelique."  The  cellars  of  the 
Hotel  de  Longueville  also  exist,  and  considerable  remains 
of  Les  Granges.  Amongst  the  many  monumental  slabs 
torn  up  from  the  church  were  those  of  the  Arnaulds,  and 
Sacys,  of  Nicole,  Pascal,  and  Racine.  The  last,  after  find- 
ing a  temporary  resting-place  in  the  church  of  Magny-les- 


LEVY-SAINT-NOM  330 

Hameaux,  is  now  in  St.  Etienne  du  Mont  at  Paris.  Many 
of  the  bodies  from  Port  Royal  were  removed  to  the  church 
of  St.  Lambert  on  the  road  to  Chevreuse,  with  some  monu- 
ments to  the  nuns,  which  may  still  be  seen. 

A  drive  from  Versailles  or  Trappes  to  Port  Royal  may 
easily  be  continued  to  embrace  Dampierre  and  Chevreuse, 
whence  one  may  return  to  Paris  by  the  line  from  Limours 
(see  Ch.  XVI.).  It  is  5  k.  from  Port  Roj^al  to  Dampierre, 
or  6  k.  (direct)  to  Chevreuse,  which  is  4  k.  from  Dampierre. 
The  great  agricultural  institute  of  Grignofi  (Ch.  XVIIL), 
established  in  a  Louis  XIV.  chateau,  which  was  sometimes 
used  as  a  residence  by  Napoleon  I.,  may  also  be  visited 
from  Trappes. 

2,2i  k.  La  Verriere^  which  takes  its  name  from  a 
chateau,  which  belonged  to  the  Comte  de  la  Valette.  An 
omnibus  leaves  the  station  of  La  Verriere  twice  a  day  for 
Dampierre  (Ch.  XVI.),  13  k.  (75  c;  50  c.).  The  road 
passes  Mesnil  St.  Denis,  a  chateau  of  temp.  Louis  XIII. 
In  the  church  are  two  XVI.  c.  statues  of  Sts.  Fiacre  and 
Catherine.  To  the  south  is  the  pretty  little  valley  of  the 
Yvette,  on  the  north  bank  of  which  is  a  XIII.  c.  chapel, 
which  is  the  only  existing  remains  of  the  Abbey  of  Notre 
Dame  de  la  Roche.  In  the  interior  of  the  nave  and  tran- 
sept are  a  number  of  gravestones  of  abbots,  and  the  choir 
tombs  of  the  family  of  Levy,  followers  of  Simon  de  Mont- 
fort  in  the  Albigensian  crusade.  The  keys  of  the  chapel 
are  kept  at  the  farm-house,  which  has  a  fine  old  chimney- 
piece. 

Twenty  minutes  of  descent  take  us  from  the  chapel  to 
Levy-Sai?it-N'o?7i^  a  picturesque  village  on  the  Yvette.  In 
the  church  is  an  ancient  (stucco)  image  of  the  Virgin, 
brought  from  the  chapel  of  Notre  Dame  de  la  Roche,  and 
supposed  to  have  been  originally  dug  up  by  a  bull  with 


340  DAYS  NEAR   PARIS 

his  horns,  of  a  miraculous  reputation,  which  twice  a  year 
(March  and  September)  brings  mothers  to  touch  it  with 
the  linen  of  their  children.  A  payment  of  lo  c.  is  de- 
manded for  every  shirt  which  touches  the  holy  image.  At 
the  bottom  of  the  valley  are  the  ruins  of  an  unfinished 
chateau,  begun  in  the  XVI.  c.  by  Jacques  de  Crussol, 
"  grand-panetier  de  France." 

An  omnibus  runs  between  La  Verriere  and  Montfort 
I'Amaury,  \i  k.  distant  (see  Ch.  XVIII.).  The  road  passes 
the  ruined  castle  of  Maurepas,  one  of  the  domains  which 
Louis  XIV.  gave  to  his  minister,  Louis  Phelippaux,  in  ex- 
change for  Marly.  When  this  castle  was  taken  by  the 
English,  in  the  reign  of  Charles  VI.,  and  its  garrison  were 
tried,  one  of  them,  named  Moniquet,  confessed  to  having 
thrown  down  seven  men  alive  into  the  castle  well  and 
crushed  them  by  hurling  huge  stones  upon  their  heads.  ^ 
The  village  of  Le  Tremblay  is  remarkable  for  its  chateau, 
which  belonged  to  the  family  of  Leclerc  du  Tremblay,  of 
which  the  famous  Pere  Joseph,  the  confidential  friend  of 
Cardinal  Richelieu,  was  a  member. 

A  little  east  is  the  moated  Chateau  de  Pontchartrain 
(see  Ch.  XVIII.). 

38  >^.  Les  Ess  arts  dtc  Roi. — To  the  right  of  the  railway, 
before  reaching  this  station  the  train  passes  the  site  of  the 
Priory  of  Haute-Bruyere  (destroyed  at  the  Revolution), 
which  was  founded  by  the  notorious  Bertrade  de  Montfort, 
queen  of  Philippe  I.  Its  chapel  contained  her  tomb,  with 
those  of  her  illustrious  descendants,  the  Comtes  Simon  and 
Amaury  de  Montfort.  Here  also  the  heart  of  Francois  I., 
afterwards  moved  to  St.  Denis,  was  long  preserved  in  a 
vase    of   white    marble.      Nothing    remains    except    the 

^  Journal  du  rcgne  de  Charles  VI, 


RAMBOUILLET 


34* 


Chapelle  des  Peres,  for  in  the  order  of  Fontevrault  a 
convent  for  men  was  always  attached  to  a  monastery  for 
women. 

The  chateau  of  Artoire  was  built  under  Louis  XIV. 
Pedestrians  may  reach  the  ruins  of  Vaux  le  Cernay  (Ch. 
XVI.)  in  a  walk  of  \\  hour  from  Les  Essarts. 

48/^.  Rambouillet  (Hotel  du  Lion  d'Or;  Dauphin; 
Croix  Blafiche).     A   town    almost   confined   to    a   single 


CHATEAU    DE    KAMBOUILLET. 


street,  La  Grande  Rue,  3  k.  in  length :  in  it  is  a  Hospice 
founded  by  the  Comte  de  Toulouse  in  1731. 

The  Chateau^  preceded  by  a  Cour  d'Honneur,  has  an 
enormous  round  tower,  battlemented  and  machicolated, 
the  only  remnant  of  the  ancient  moated  castle,  which  was 
entered  by  a  drawbridge,  and  which  belonged  to  the  family 
D'Angennes,  of  whom  Jean  d'Angennes  sold  Cherbourg 
to  the  English.  The  last  of  the  family  was  Charles  d'An- 
gennes, whose  wife,  the  Marquise  de  Rambouillet,  was 
celebrated  as  the  literary  leader  of  the  XVII.  c.     Her 


342  ^^  yS  NEAR  PARIS 

eldest  daughter  brought  Rambouillet  by  marriage  to  the 
Due  de  Montausier,  governor  of  "  Monseigneur,"  son  of 
Louis  XIV.  The  property  was  sold  by  Fleuriau  d'Arme- 
nonville  to  the  Comte  de  Toulouse,  the  legitimized  younger 
son  of  Louis  XIV.  and  Mme  de  Montespan,  whose  son, 
the  Due  de  Penthievre,  sold  it  for  sixteen  million  francs 
to  Louis  XVI.  The  king  was  devoted  to  the  place,  but 
Marie  Antoinette  detested  it.  "  Que  voulez-vous  que  je 
fasse  dans  cette  crapaudiere  ? "  she  said,  when  the  king 
wanted  to  take  her  there.  Rambouillet  became  national 
property  under  the  Republic;  it  was  part  of  the  civil  list. 
of  Napoleon  L,  Louis  XVIII.,  Charles  X.,  and  Napoleon 
III. 

The  main  buildings  of  the  chateau  date  from  the  XV.  c, 
but  have  been  altered  in  the  XVI.  c.  and  XVII.  c.  They 
are  very  picturesque  as  seen  from  the  gardens,  which  were 
adorned  by  the  Comte  de  Toulouse  with  tanks,  lime  ave- 
nues, and  statues,  after  the  fashion  of  Versailles. 

Cardinal  de  Bellay  was  frequently  here  in  the  time  of 
D'Angennes,  to  whom  he  was  nearly  related,  and  in  his 
suite,  as  a  doctor,  came  Rabelais. 

"  At  the  foot  of  the  chateau  there  is  a  very  large  plain  in  the 
midst  of  which,  by  a  freak  of  nature,  is  formed  a  circle  of  great 
rocks,  between  which  tall  trees  grow  and  form  a  very  agreeable 
shade.  This  is  the  spot  where  Rabelais  amused  them,  as  the 
neighborhood  says.  And  to-day  still  a  certain  hollow  stone  is 
called  the  Kettle  of  Rabelais." — Tallcmant  des  Re'atix,  1658. 

The  spot  thus  spoken  of  is  now  surrounded  by  water 
and  called  L'lle  des  Roches,  but  the  cave  of  Rabelais  is 
still  to  be  seen  there.  The  Ferine  experi?nenfa/e  is  due  to 
Louis  XVI.,  and  the  Laiterl:  de  la  Reine  was  made  by  him 
for  Marie  Antoinette,  to  console  her  in  temporary  absences 
from  her  beloved  Trianon.     It  was  afterwards  a  favorite 


RAMBOUILLET 


343 


spot  with  Marie  Louise,  for  whom  Napoleon  I.  redecorated 
the  little  temple,  the  original  decorations  having  been 
removed  to  Malmaison. 

It  was  in  the  old  palace  of  Rambouillet  that  Francois  I. 
died,  March  13,  1547. 

"A  slow  fever  consumed  this  monarch,  Avho  moved  from 
chateau  to  chateau  without  finding  anywhere  repose  or  alleviation  ; 
he  was,  finally,  obliged  to  take  to  his  bed  at  Rambouillet,  and  the 
progress  of  an  inveterate  ulcer,  which  had  tormented  him  for  eight 


GARDENS  OF  RAMBOUILLET. 


years,  soon  left  no  hope.  His  last  counsels  to  his  son  where  to 
lower  the  taxes,  to  keep,  as  ministers,  d'Annehaut  and  the  Car- 
dinal de  Tournon,  not  to  recall  Montmorency  to  office,  and  above 
all,  to  be  sure  not  to  appoint  the  Guises,  'puree  qtcils  tendroient  de 
mettre  lici  et  ses  en f ants  en  pourpoint  et  son  petiple  en  chejuise.^ 

"The  dying  man's  words  must  have  been  forgotten  before 
his  body  was  cold.  Diane  de  Poitiers  and  the  Comte  d'Aumale 
were  there  joyfully  watching  the  progress  of  the  king's  agony. 
'  He  is  going,  the  gallant  ;  he  is  going,'  said  Frangois  de  Guise." 
Martin,  "  Hist,  de  France.'' 

Catherine  de  Medicis  and  Charles  IX.  waited  at  Ram- 


344 


DA  YS  NEAR  PARIS 


bouillet  for  the  issue  of  the  battle  of  Dreux.  Since  then 
its  principal  visitors  have  been  fallen  royalties  in  flight. 
Leon  Gozlan  says  that  the  gate  of  the  chateau  is  the  funeral 
arch  through  which  the  dynasties  of  France  have  passed 
to  the  grave.  Henri  III.  fled  hither  from  Paris  on  the  day 
of  the  barricades,  and  '^'y  coucha  tout  botte."  Marie 
Louise  came  hither,  March  29,  1814,  flying  from  Paris, 
followed,  on  the  next  day,  by  Joseph  Bonaparte.  Return- 
ing to  Rambouillet  a  month  later,  the  Empress  received  the 
visit  of  the  allied  sovereigns  here,  and  set  out  hence  for 
Vienna.  In  the  following  year  Napoleon  came  hither  after 
his  second  abdication,  on  his  way  to  Rochefort,  where  he 
intended  to  embark  for  America.  At  the  close  of  the 
"comedie  de  quinze  ans  "  Charles  X.  fled  hither  (July  31, 
1830)  from  St.  Cloud,  and  here  he  abdicated  and  the  Due 
d'Angouleme  abandoned  his  rights,  in  favor  of  the  Due  de 
Bordeaux,  who  was  proclaimed  as  Henri  V.^ 

"King  Charles  X.  arrived  at  Rambouillet;  he  had  met  on 
the  road  the  Duchesse  de  Berry  ;  he  was  escorted  by  the  body- 
guard and  the  gendari?ierie  d'^lite. 

"He  was  received,  not  with  the  demonstrations  of  joy,  and 
the  festal  air  which  lately  welcomed  his  presence,  but  as  an  un- 
fortunate.and  fugitive  prince.  No  lights  had  been  prepared  in 
the  court  of  honor.  The  carriage  drew  up  at  the  foot  of  the 
steps. 

"Napoleon,  flying  from  Malmaison,  had  come  to  the  same 
chateau,  to  pass  the  first  night  of  his  eternal  exile. 

"  Next  day,  August  i,  at  five  in  the  morning,  Madame  the 
Duchesse  dAngouleme  arrived,  having  left  Vichy  two  da)^s  be- 
fore. She  avoided  Paris,  passed  through  Versailles,  disguised 
as  a  country-woman,  and,  in  one  of  the  little  public  vehicles  on 
service  in  the  neighborhood,  crossed  through  the  bands  of  insur- 
gents,  and   finally   reached    Rambouillet    in    company   with    the 

^  Louis  XIV.  reigned:  his  son  did  not  reign  ;  Louis  XV.  reigned  :  his  son 
did  not  reign  ;  Louis  XVI.  reigned :  his  son  did  not  reign  ;  Napoleon  I.  reigned  : 
his  son  did  not  reign  ;  Charles  X.  reigned  :  his  son  did  not  reign  ;  Napoleon  III. 
reigned  :  his  son  did  not  reign. 


RAMBOUILLET 


345 


Dauphin,  who,  having  received  notice,  came  to  meet  her.  The 
king  advanced  as  far  as  the  steps  to  receive  her  ;  she  flung  herself 
into  his  arms. 

"  '  Ah,  my  father,'  she  exclaimed,  *  my  father,  what  have  you 
done?  At  least,'  she  added,  '  we  will  never  separate.'" — Souve- 
nirs du  Due  de  Broglie. 

Under  Napoleon  III.  the  palace  of  Rambouillet  -was 
made  a  refuge  for  the  children  of  officers — "I'Ecole  d'essai 
des  enfants  de  troupe." 

There  are  pleasant  drives  and  walks  in  the  Forest  of 
Rambouillet.  At  St.  Hilario?i  are  ruins  of  a  XIII.  c. 
chapel. 


XVIII. 

MONTFORT-LAMA  UR  V  AND  DREUX} 

THE  line  (from  the  Gare  Montparnasse)  is  the  same 
as  Ch.  XVII.,  as  far  as  St.  Cyr;  hence  it  crosses 
featureless  corn-lands  by — 

29  k.  Villepreicx-les-Clayes.  In  the  woods  of  Arry  near 
Villepreux,  a  fete  is  held  on  Whit  Monday,  at  the  Chapelle 
St.  yotian. 

33  k.  Plaisir-Grignon.  An  omnibus  takes  travellers 
in  fifteen  minutes  to  the  great  agricultural  institution  of 
Grignon,  founded  in  1827.  The  handsome  church  of 
Grignon  is  XIII.  c. 

40  k.  Villiers-Neauphle.  On  the  right,  in  the  valley  of 
the  Mauldre,  at  Neauphle-le-  Vieiix,  are  considerable  re- 
mains of  a  Benedictine  abbey  and  church,  founded  1066, 
and  now  turned  into  a  farm.  2  k.  left  of  the  station  is  the 
noble  moated  Chateau  de  Pontchar train,  built  by  Paul 
Phelypeaux  Secretary  of  State  (ob.  1621),  and  enriched  by 
his  descendants,  who  for  four  generations  filled  high  gov- 
ernment offices.  It  is  now  occupied  by  Comte  Hencliel 
de  Donnersmack. 

An  omnibus   connects  the  station  with  Beynes,  where 

"  These  two  places  may  be  united  in  a  pleasant  summer-day's  excursion 
from  Paris.  It  will  then  be  necessary  to  leave  Montfort-rAmaury  station  for 
Dreux  at  1.56. 


ONTFORT-LAMAURV  347 

the  church  contains  a  magnificent  renaissance  retable,  and 
which  has  remains  of  a  moated  castle,  flanked  by  eight 
towers. 

45  k.  MoiitfortV Aniaury .  It  is  2  k.  from  the  station, 
by  a  straight  avenue  of  planes,  to  the  quaint,  seldom- 
visited  town  (omnibus,  40  c. ;  Hotel  des  Voyageurs ;  de 
Paris — good  restaurant),  which  is  overlooked  by  the 
ruined  castle  of  the  Comtes  de  Montfort.  This  famous 
family  descended  from  Charlemagne,  through  Judith 
(daughter  of  Charles  le  Chauve),  who  married  Baudouin 
Bras-de-fer,  Comte  de  Flandre.  Their  grandson,  Guil- 
laume,  Comte  de  Hainaut,  married  the  heiress  of  Epernon 
and  Montfort.  He  fortified  the  latter  place,  which  took 
the  name  of  his  son,  Amaury.  Simon,  son  of  Amaury,  was 
the  father  of  the  famous  Bertrade,  who  fled  from  her  first 
husband,  Foulques  de  Re'chin,  Comte  d'Anjou,  to  marry 
Philippe  I.  of  France,  who  was  already  married  himself. 
The  pair  were  excommunicated,  nevertheless  Bertrade 
lived  prosperously  with  the  king  for  sixteen  years,  and 
even  contrived  to  reconcile  her  first  and  second  husbands, 
and  dine  with  them  together  at  Angers,  and  sit  with  them 
under  the  same  canopy  at  church — the  king  by  her  side, 
Foulques  on  a  stool  at  her  feet.  Bertrade  died  a  nun. 
Her  brother,  Amaury  IV.,  a  famous  warrior,  sometimes 
the  ally  and  often  the  enemy  of  his  sovereign,  was  the 
grandfather  of  the  celebrated  and  cruel  Simon  de  Mont- 
fort, who  overthrew  the  Counts  of  Toulouse  and  acquired 
their  dominions.  His  son,  Amaury  VII.,  resigned  the 
countship  of  Toulouse  to  Louis  VIII. ,  for  the  dignity  of 
constable. 

But  the  family  history  was  by  no  means  ended  yet. 
The  son  of  Amaury  VII.  only  left  a  daughter,  who  married 
(1250)  the  Comte  de  Dreux.     Yolande,  heiress  of  Dreux 


348  DA  YS  NEAR  PARIS 

and  Montfort,  married  first  Alexander  III.  of  Scotland, 
and  secondly  Arthur  II.,  Due  de  Bretagne.  The  son  of 
her  second  marriage,  Jean  de  Montfort,  disputed  the  ducal 
crown  with  his  niece,  Jeanne,  wife  of  Charles  de  Blois. 
The  son  of  Jean  de  Montfort,  of  the  same  name,  after 
gaining  the  battle  of  Auray,  where  his  rival  was  killed,  be- 
came duke,  and  the  Dukes  of  Brittany  continued  to  be  also 
Counts  of  Montfort  till  the  marriage  of  Anne  of  Brittany 
with  Charles  VIII.,  and  afterwards  with  Louis  XII.  In 
1537,  Francois  I.  gave  up  to  Spain  the  countship  of  Mont- 
fort-l'Amaury,  but  recovered  it  seven  years  after.  It  after- 
wards belonged  to  Catherine  de  Medicis,  to  her  son  the 
Due  d'Anjou,  then  to  the  Due  d'Alengon.  At  the  death 
of  the  latter,  Henri  III.  gave  it  to  the  Due  d'Epernon. 
Returning  to  the  Crown,  it  was  exchanged,  in  1692,  by 
Louis  XIV.  with  the  duchy  of  Chevreuse.  Never  had 
fortress  so  many  illustrious  owners. 

The  splendid  Parish  Church,  chiefly  renaissance,  has 
some  small  remains  of  the  original  building,  given  to  the 
abbey  of  St.  Magloire  at  Paris,  in  1072.  The  choir  is 
XV.  c,  except  the  flying  buttresses  added  in  the  XVI.  c, 
to  which  the  nave  belongs.  The  tower  is  of  16 13.  The 
vaulting  of  the  side  aisles  has  very  rich  pendants.  A  great 
deal  of  fine  stained-glass  of  1578  remains,  most  of  the 
windows — superb  in  color — representing  scriptural  sub- 
jects, with  the  donors  kneeling  in  front,  often  presented 
by  their  patron  saints.  In  the  first  window  (right)  kneel 
Henri  III.  and  Catherine  de  Medicis,  attended  by  pages 
and  ladies.  Facing  the  church  is  the  castle  on  its  hill,  and 
La  Porte  Bardoii  closing  the  uphill  street,  and  supposed 
to  derive  its  name  from  Hugues  Bardoulf,  father-in-law  of 
Simon  de  Montfort.  From  a  side  street  on  the  right,  in 
ascending  the  hill,  a  pretty  flamboyant  portal  gives  access 


MONTFOR  T-VAMA  UR  V 


349 


to  the  XV.  c.  cloisters  of  a  convent,  with  good  wooden 
vaulting,  the  enclosed  space  being  now  used  as  a  cemetery. 
Amongst  the  tombs  is  that  of  the  Duchesse  de  Be'thune- 
Charost,  daughter  of  the  Marquis  de  Tourzel,  governess 
of  Louis  XVII.  Little  remains  of  the  castle  except  two 
towers,  one  hexagonal,  of  admirable  brick-  and  stone-work. 
There  are  some  ruins  of  another  castle  near  the  chateau 
of  Groussaye. 


PORTE   BARDOU,    MONTFORT-L  AMAURY. 


The  modern  chapel  of  Notre  Dame  du  Chene^  on  the 
road  to  Artoire,  contains  a  "miraculous"  statue  of  the 
Virgin,  said  to  have  been  found  in  an  oak.  Near  this  is 
the  XVII.  c.  chateau  of  Mesnuls^  which  belongs  to  the 
Comte  de  Nogent.  In  the  neighboring  forest  of  St.  Leger 
was  the  Chateaic  de  St.  Hubert,  a  richly-decorated  hunting- 
lodge,  built  by  Gabriel  for  Louis  XIV.  and  destroyed  by 
Louis  XVI. 

$6  k.   Tacoignieres.  To  the  right  of  the  line  is  Riche- 


350  DAYS  NEAR   PARIS 

bourg,  which  has  a  fine  XV.  c.  church,  with  a  peculiar  and 
graceful  spire. 

63  k.  Houdan  (omnibus,  25  c.),  the  ancient  Hodincum, 
retains  its  old  fortress-tower,  built  by  Amaury  III.  de 
Montfort  [c.  1 130).  It  has  a  fine  unfinished  gothic  church, 
and  (39  Rue  de  Paris)  a  richly-ornamented  old  timber 
mansion.  6  k.  east,  at  Ga?nbais,  is  a  large  moated  chateau 
of  the  XIV.  c. 

82  /'.  Dreux  (Hotel  du  Paradis,  good),  crowned  by  its 
royal  burial-place,  and  the  remains  of  the  castle  of  the 
Comtes  de  Dreux. 

The  town — said  to  have  been  the  capital  of  the  Duro- 
casses  in  the  reign  of  Agrippa — has  sustained  many  sieges, 
and  (December  19,  1562)  was  the  scene  of  a  sanguinary 
battle,  between  the  Protestants  under  Conde  and  Coligny, 
and  the  Catholics  under  the  "triumvirate"  of  the  Con- 
stable de  Montmorency,  the  Due  de  Guise,  and  Mare'chal 
St.  Andre.  Eight  thousand  men  fell  in  the  battle,  in 
which  the  Catholics  were  victorious,  the  Prince  de  Conde 
on  the  Protestant  side,  and  Montmorency  on  the  Catholic 
side,  being  taken  prisoners,  and  St.  Andre  being  killed. 

The  magnificent  Church  of  St.  Pierre  is  chiefly  flam- 
boyant, but  the  choir  and  the  columns  of  the  nave  are 
XII.  c.  and  XIII.  c.  The  fine  gothic  portal  is  by  Cle'ment 
M^tezeau,  a  native  of  Dreux.  The  stained  glass  is  of  great 
beauty  and  interest.  In  the  nave  are  remains  of  a  series  of 
the  Apostles ;  in  the  choir  several  noble  life-size  figures  of 
saints ;  in  the  south  transept  the  Descent  from  the  Cross 
and  the  Sacrifice  of  Isaac.  In  the  side  chapels  are  a 
Crucifixion  ;  scenes  from  the  story  of  the  sainted  shoe- 
makers, Crispin  and  Crispinian  ;  the  Ascension  ;  the  Bap- 
tism of  Clovis  ;  St.  John ;  Notre  Dame  de  Pitie ;  St. 
Blaise  ;    St.    Sebastian ;   fragments  of  the  story  of  Notre 


DREUX 


351 


Dame  de  Lorette,  and  of  that  of  St.  Fiacre.  The  (restored) 
windows  of  the  Chapelle  de  la  Vierge  narrate  the  history  of 
the  Virgin.  Some  of  the  side  chapels  of  the  nave  have 
remains  of  frescoes  representing  the  pilgrimage  of  the  in- 
habitants of  Dreux  to  St.  James  of  Compostella,  in  the 
XVII.  c.  and  XVIII.  c.  On  the  wall  facing  the  altar  is  an 
armed  knight,  with  the  epitaph  of  Mercceur  de  France, 
1562.  A  curious  bhiitier  of  XII.  c.  comes  from  the  old 
collegiate  church  of  St.  Etienne.     The  organ  is  of  1614. 


Near  the  church  is  a  very  fine  old  clock-tower.  The 
renaissance  Hotel  de  Ville  was  built  15 12-1537.  It  con- 
tains a  sculptured  portal  from  the  Chateau  de  Crecy,  and 
armor  found  on  the  battlefield  of  Ivry.  The  bell,  founded 
under  Charles  IX.,  is  surrounded  with  a  representation  of 
the  Procession  des  Flambarts,  which  formerly  took  place 
at  Christmas  at  Dreux. 

The  Orleans  Chapel  rises  picturesquely  on  the  hill  at 
the  end  of  the  principal  street.    There  are  two  ascents,  one 


352  DAYS  NEAR  PARIS 

for  carriages,  and  a  shorter  one  for  pedestrians,  winding  up 
to  the  grounds  of  the  chateau,  which  are  open  to  the  pubUc. 
Very  Httle  of  the  ancient  castle  remains,  but  its  enclosure 
is  occupied  by  a  garden,  in  the  centre  of  which  is  the 
Chapelle  royale,  built  by  the  Dowager  Duchess  of  Orleans 
in  1813,  and  gothicized  by  Louis  Philippe  in  1839.  The 
architecture  is  wretched,  but  the  contents  are  of  the  deepest 
interest.  For  admission  apply  to  the  concierge  on  the  left 
of  the  entrance  to  the  garden.  Only  funeral  services  are 
now  held  here.  Since  the  "  chateau  en  planches  "  was  de- 
stroyed in  1848,  the  family  have  arrived  for  the  services 
in  the  morning,  leaving  again  in  the  afternoon. 

The  beautiful  stained  windows  of  the  antechapel  repre- 
sent Christ  in  the  Garden  of  Olives ;  the  Deposition ;  St. 
Arnould  washing  the  feet  of  pilgrims ;  and  St.  Adelaide, 
Queen  of  Hungary,  distributing  alms. 

The  rotunda  or  choir  is  the  original  part  of  the  church. 
The  beautiful  glass  of  the  windows  has  figures  of  saints — 
the  Due  d'Orleans  is  represented  as  St.  Ferdinand,  Prin- 
cess Louise  as  St.  Amelie,  Louis  Philippe  as  St.  Philippe. 
A  stair  descends  behind  the  altar  to  the  crypts  and  chapel 
of  the  Virgin,  entirely  occupied  by  the  royal  monuments. 

Right  of  the  steps  is  the  tomb  of  Mile  de  Montpensier,  the  two- 
years-old  daughter  of  Louis  Philippe,  by  Pradier. 

Left  of  the  steps,  the  Due  de  Penthievre,  eight-years-old  son  of 
Louis  Philippe. 

Facing  the  steps,  the  huge  tomb  of  King  Louis  Philippe  and 
Queen  Marie  Amelie,  arranged  to  support  their  effigies — that  of 
the  king  standing,  with  his  hand  resting  upon  the  kneeling 
queen. 

Right.  Princess  Marie,  Duchesse  of  Wurtemberg.  The  an- 
gel above  was  her  last  work  in  sculpture. 

Right,  in  the  sanctuary.  The  Due  d'Orleans,  eldest  son  of 
Louis  Philippe,  1842.  The  tomb  was  designed  by  Ary  Scheffer, 
and  is  very  noble  and  touching.     Behind  (in  a  separate  chapel, 


DREUX  353 

being  a  Protestant)  is  Helene  de  Mecklembourg-Schwerin,  Du- 
chesse  d'Orleans  (1858),  her  hand  outstretched  from  the  dark 
chapel,  so  as  almost  to  touch  her  husband. 

Right.  Maria  Clementina  of  Austria,  Princess  of  Salerno, 
mother  of  the  Duchesse  d'Aumale. 

Left.  Mme  Adelaide,  1847,  sister  of  Louis  Philippe,  beauti- 
ful in  lace  and  ermine  ;  by  Millet. 

Left.  The  crowned  figure  of  the  Duchesse  d'Orleans,  mother 
of  Louis  Philippe,  and  foundress  of  the  chapel — exquisitely 
beautiful. 

Left.  The  Duchesse  de  Bourbon-Conde,  aunt  of  the  king, 
and  mother  of  the  Due  d'Enghien. 

Turnuig  left  from  the  steps.  Two  children  of  the  Comte  de 
Paris  ;  an  exquisite  work  of  Franceschi.  A  child,  bearing  a 
cross  with  one  hand,  lifts  his  baby  brother  to  eternity  with  the 
other. 

Left.  Prince  Ferdinand,  son  of  the  Due  de  Montpensier  ;  by 
Aime  Millet.  An  exquisitely  beautiful  tomb,  and  simple  touch- 
ing figure. 

Opposite,  right.  Prince  Louis,  son  of  the  Due  de  Montpen- 
sier ;  by  Millet.     A  veiled  figure. 

Left.     Six  children  of  the  Due  d'Aumale. 

Left.  Louis  Philippe,  Prince  de  Conde,  eldest  son  of  the 
Due  d'Aumale,  who  died  at  Sydney  in  his  twent3^-first  j^ear,  Sep- 
tember, 1866. 

Left.  Fran^oise,  Due  de  Guise,  last  son  of  the  Due  d'Au- 
male, who  died  at  eighteen,  July  25,  1872. 

Right,  opposite.  Caroline,  Duchesse  d'Aumale,  1869,  with  a 
beautiful  statue  by  Alfred  Lenoir. 

Turning  right  from  steps.  Prince  Robert,  son  of  the  Due  de 
Chartres,  aged  eighteen. 

A  beautiful  series  of  windows  represents  the  life  of  St.  Louis. 
The  tomb  of  the  Due  de  Penthievre,  maternal  grandfather  of 
Louis  Philippe  (father-in-law  of  the  Princesse  de  Lamballe),  was 
violated  in  1793.  In  side  passages  are  some  exquisite  windows, 
each  being  a  picture  on  a  single  sheet  of  glass,  executed  at  Sevres, 
by  Brongniart  and  Robert. 

A  little  north-east  of  Dreux  is  Abondant,  whither  Mme 
de  Tourzel,  governess  of  the  children  of  Louis  XVI., 
retired   after   the  death  of   Robespierre,  having  escaped 


354 


DA  YS  NEAR   PARIS 


miraculously  from  the  guillotine,  with  her  two  daughters 
the  Duchesse  de  Charost,  and  Pauline,  afterwards  Com 
tesse  de  Beam  and  authoress  of  Souvenirs  de  QuaranteAns. 
Here  this  faithful  friend  of  Marie  Antoinette  is  buried, 
with  the  epitaph — 

"HicjacetL,  E.  F.  T.  A.  M.  J.  deCroy,  Ducissa  de  Tourzel, 
regiae  sobolis  gubernatrix,  Fortis  in  adversis,  Deo  regique 
fidelis,  vere  mater  pauperum,  pertransivit  benefaciendo,  omnibus 
veneranda,  magno  prolis  amore  dilecta.  Abiit  anno  aetatis  82. 
Requiescat  in  pace." 

Architects  especially  will  not  fail  to  prolong  their  ex- 
cursion to  the  interesting  remains  of  the  Chateau  d'Anet, 
near  the  station  of  Ezy-Anet,  2 1  >^.  from  Dreux,  on  the  line 
to  Louviers.     See  Western  France. 


INDEX. 


A. 

Abbaye  aux  Bois,  307 
Corneille,  231 
de  Maubuisson,  194 
de  Port  Royal,  326 
de  Royaumont,  201 
St.   Denis,  161 
.  du  Val,  190 
du  Val  Profond,  307 
de  la  Victoire,  220 

Ablon,  288 

Abondant,  353 

Andilly,  187 

Anet,  354 

Antony,  306 

Arcueil,  298 

Argenteuil,  159 

Artoire,  341 

Asnieres,  106 

Athis-Mons,  288 

Auger  St.  Vincent,  222 

Aulnay,  151,  300 

Aumone,  194 

Auvers,  191 

B. 

Barbery,  222 

Beauregard,  chateau  de,  261 

Beaumont-sur-Oise,  202 

Bellevue,  319 

Beynes,  346 

Bezons,  159 

Bicetre,  298 

Bi^vre,  307 


Blaville,  chateau  de,  293 
Bois  de  Meudon,  318 

le  Roi,  265 

de  Vincennes,  250 
Boissy-St.  Leger,  252 
Bondy,  254 
Boran,  203 
Bougival,  124 
Bourg-la-Reine,  299 
Boutigny,  385 
Bretigny,  292 
Breuillet,  293 
Brie-Comte  Robert,  253 
Briis,  311 
Brimborion,  320 
Brunoy,  262 
Buzenval,  chateau  de,  125 

C. 

Celestins,  chateau  des,  154 
Celle  St.  Cloud,  125 
Chaillot,  157 
Chamant,  222 
Chamarande,  293 
Chambourcy,  118 
Champlatreux,  chateau  de,  202 
Chantilly,  209 
Charenton-le-Pont,  260 
Chasse,  chateau  de  la,  187 
Chatenay,  306 

Chatillon-sous-Bagneux,  299 
Chatou,  108 
Chaville,  320 
Chaud-Moncel,  252 
Chelles,  255 


356 


INDEX 


Chennevieres,  252 
Chevreuse,  308 
Chilly,  307 
Choisy-le-Roi,  286 
Clagny,  104 
Clamart,  313 
Colombes,  158 
Compiegne,  225 
Conflans,  260 

Conflans-St.-Honorine,  145 
Corbeil,  283 
Courbevoie,  i 
Creil,  204 

Crepy-en-Valois,  222 
Creteuil,  261 
Crosne,  261 
Cucufa,  pool  of,  123 

D. 

Dammarie-les-Lys,  265 
Dammartin,  239 
Dampierre,  309 
Domont,  200 
Dourdan,  293 
Dreux,  350 


Echaffour,  forest  of,  loS 
Ecouen, 199 
Enghien-les-Bains,  184 
Epinay-sur-Orge,  288 
Epone,  151 
Ermenonville,  240 
Essonnes,  285 
Etampes,  293 
Etrechy,  293 
Eury-sur-Seine,  283 


Fleury,  313 
Fontainebleau,  265 
Fontaine-le-Port,  265 
Fontenay-aux-Roses,  299 
Forest  of  Carnelle,  202 
Chantilly,  216 
Compiegne,  231 
Fontainebleau,  27S 


Forest  of  Halette,  224 
Marly,  142 
Montmorency,  186 
Rambouillel,  345 
St.  Genevieve,  288 
St.  Germain,  117 
St.  Leger,  353 
Senart,  283 
Sequigny,  288 

Forges-les-Bains,  311 

Froment,  chateau  de,  282 

Fourqueux,  142 


Gambais,  350 

Gassicourt,  154 

Gif,  307 

Grignon,  339 

Grillon,  293 

Grolay,  187 

Gros  Bois,  chateau  de,  252 

Groslay,  199 

H. 

Halatte,  forest  of,  224 
Haute-Bruyere,  340 
Houdan,  350 

I. 

Issy,  313 
Ivr}%  286 

Jonchere,  La,  124 
Juilly,  237 
Juvisy-sur-Orge,  288 

L. 

L'Abbaye,  261 

La  Ferte-Alais,  285 

Lamotte,  224 

Lardy,  293 

La  Varenne  St.  Maur,  252 

La  Verriere,  339 

Les  Essarts  du  Roi,  340 

Les  Loges,  118 

L'Isle  Adam,  202 

Le  Tremblay,  340 

Levy-St.-Nom,  339 


INDEX 


357 


Limay,  154 
Limours,  311 
Livry,  254 
Longport,  290 
Longueil  St.  Marie,  224 
Louveciennes,  142 
Luzarches,  202 

M. 

Maisons-Alfort,  261 

Laffitte,  144 
Maisse,  285 
Malesherbes,  286 
Malmaison,  La,  121 
Mantes,  151 
Maffliers,  201 
Marcoussis,  291 
Marcil  Marly,  118 
Marly-la-Machine,  125 

le-Roi,  126 
Massy,  306 
Maubuisson,  194 
Maule,  151 
Maurepas,  340 
Meaux,  257 
Medan,  149 
Melun,  262 

Mereville,  chateau  de,  297 
Meriel,  191 
Mery,  191 
Mesnil-Aubry,  200 
Mesnil,  chateau  de,  155 

St.  Denis,  339 
Mesnuls,  chateau  de,  349 
Meudon,  313 
Meulan-les-Mureaux,  149 
Meunecy,  285 
Milly,  285 
Monnerville,  297 
Monsoult,  201 
Monte  Cristo,  villa  of,  109 
Mont-l'Eveque,  chateau  de,  221 
Montfort-rAmaury,  347 
Montgeron,  261 
Montlhery,  290 
Montmorency,  184 
Mont  Valerien,  i 
Moret,  280 
Morfontaine,  208 


Morienval,  236 
Morlaye,  chateau  de,  203 

N. 

Nanterre,  106 
Nantouillet,  237 
Neauphle-le-Vieux,  346 
Nogent-les-Vierges,  205 
Nogent-sur-Marne,  251 
Notre  Dame  de  la  Roche,  339 


Orsay,  307 


O. 


P. 


Palaiseau,  306 
Parc-aux-Dames,  222 
Pecq,  Le,  109 
Persan-Beaumont,  202 
Petit  Bourg,  283 
Pierrefonds,  232 
Poissy,  145 
Pontchartrain,  chateau  de,  340 

346 
Pontoise,  192 
Pont-St.-Maxence,  224 
Port  Marly,  126 
Port  Royal,  326 
Presles,  202 
Puteaux,  I 

R. 

Raincy,  Le,  254 
Rambouillet,  341 
Retz,  desert  de,  142 
Ris-Orangis,  282 
Rivecourt,  225 
Robinson,  299 
Roche-Guyon,  La,  156 
Roquemont,  202 
Roquencourt,  118 
Rosay,  157 
Rosny,  156 

Rouville,  chateau  de,  286 
Royaumont,  201 
Rueil,  119 


358 


INDEX 


V. 


St.  Brice,  199 

St.  Ch6ron,  293 

St.  Cloud,  2 

St.  Corentin,  157 

St.  Corneille,  abbey  of,  231 

St.  Cyr,  320 

St.  Denis,  161 

St.  Fiacre,  118 

St.  Firmin,  216 

St.  Genevieve,  chateau  de,  289 

St.  Germain-en-Laye,  109 

St.  Hilarion,  345 

St.  Hubert,  chateau  de,  349 

St.  Jean  aux  Bois,  235 

St.  Leu-d'Esserent,  203 

St.  Leu  Taverny,  188 

St.  Maur-les-Fosses,  251 

St.  Maur-Port-Creteil,  251 

St.  Michel,  290 

St.  Pierre,  232 

St.  Reiny,  308 

St.  Sauveur,  hermitage  of,  154 

St.  Sulpice  de  Favieres,  293 

St.  Waast-de-Longmont,  225 

Sarcelles-St. -Brice,  199 

Sartrouville,  145 

Savigny-sur-Orge,  288 

Sceaux,  301 

Senart,  283 

Senlis,  217 

Senlisse,  310 

Sequigny,  288 

Sevres,  13 

Soisy,  184 

Sucy-Bonneuil,  252 

Suresnes,  i 

Survilliers,  208 


T. 

Tacoignieres,  349 
Taverny,  190 
Thiais,'288 
Trap  pes,  326 
Trianon,  Grand,  95 

Petit,  99 
Triel,  149 


Val,  313 

Val,  abbaye  du,  190 
Valmondois,  192 
Vaux,  149 

le-Cernay,  310 
Vaux-le-Peny,  263 

-Praslin,  263 
V^theuil,  156 
Verberie,  224 
Verneuil,  149 
Vernouillet,  149 
Versailles,  16 

Antichambre  du  Roi,  64 

dela  Reine,  74 

Appartements  du    Due    de 

Bourgogne,  78 

de  Cardinal  Fleur}-, 

78 
du  Due  de  Maine, 

30 
de  Mme  du   Barr)', 

57 
de  Mme  de    Main- 
tenon,  78 
de  Mesdames,  88 
de  Monsieur,  87 
du    Due    de    Pen- 

thievre,  78 
Petits,     de     Marie 
Antoinette,  64 
de      Louis 
XV.,  54 
Attique  du  Nord,  33 
Bassin  d'Apollon,  93 

de  Neptune,  93 
Bibliotheque       de       Louis 

XVL,  56 
Bosquet  d'Apollon,  94 

de  la  Colonnade,  93 
de  la  Reine,  93 
Cabinet  de  Chasses,  57 

des  Perruques,  53 
du  Roi,  53 
Cathedral  of  St.  Louis,  104 
Chambre     a     Coucher     de 
Louis  XIV.,  58 
de  la  Reine,  75 
Chapelle,  26 


INDEX 


359 


Versailles — 

Cour  des  Cerfs,  57 

de  la  Chapelle,  26 
Grande,  26 
de  Marbre,  25 
des  Princes,  26 
des  Statues,  24 

Escalier  des  Ambassadeurs, 

57 
des  Cent  Marches, 

104 
de  Marbre, 78, 84,85 
des  Princes,  87 
de  Provence,  86 
du  Roi,  88 
Galerie  des  Batailles,  78 
de  Constantin,  33 
des  Glaces,  51 
de  Louis  XIII.,  88 
des  Peintures,  44 
des  Peintures  His- 
toriques,  80 
Galeries  de  I'Empire,  86 

de     I'Histoire     de 

France,  30 
de  Sculptures, 32, 86 
Gardens,  89 
Grand  canal,  94 
Musee,  30 

de    la    Revolution 
Fran9aise,  104 
Orangerie,  92 
Parterre  du  Midi,  92 
Pavilion  de   la   Surintend- 

ance,  78 
Piece  d'Eau  des  Suisses,  92 
Place  d'Armes,  24 
Quinconce  du  Midi,  93 
Salle  d'Abondance,  47 
des  Amiraux,  87 
d'Apollon,  48 
des  Bonaparte,  84 
des  Bourbon,  78 
des  Cent  Suisses,  77 
des  Connetables,  87 
du  Conseil,  52 
des  Croisades,  33 
de  Diane,  47 
des  Etats-g6neraux,47 
des  Gardes,  64 


Versailles — 

Salle    des     Gardes     de    la 

Reine,  75 
de  la  Guerre,  50 
des    Guerriers    C61e- 

bres,  88 
d'Hercule,  45 
du  Jeu  de  Paume,  104 
de  Mars,  48 
des  Marechaux,  87 
des  Marines,  86 
de  Mercure,  48 
de  I'CEil  de  Boeuf,  62 
de  I'Opera,  30 
d'Or  et  d'Argent,  56 
d'Orleans,  83 
de  la  Paix,  65 
des  Pendules,  56 
des  Porcelaines,  56 
de  la  Reine,  70 
des    Residences    roy- 

ales,  87 
des  Rois  de  France,  87 
du  Sacre,  75 
des    Tableaux-Plans, 

87 
des  Tombeaux,  86 
de  Venus,  47 

Tapis  Vert,  92 

Vestibule  de  Louis  XIII. ,87 
Vesinet,  Le,  108 
Viarmes,  201 

Victoire,  abbaye  de  la,  220 
Vigny,  150 
Villecresnes,  253 
Ville  d'Avray,  13 
Villegenis,  chateau  de,  306 
Villemouble-Gagny,  255 
Villeneuve-l'Etang,  12 

St.  Georges,  261,282 
Villepreux-les-Clayes,  346 
Villers  St.  Paul,  207 
Villiers  N^auphle,  151,  346 
Vincennes,  242 
Viroflay,  320 
Vitry-sur-Seine,  286 


Y. 


Yeres,  261 
Yvette,  the,  309 


^ir  Augustus  x^(,  C,  Jyaxt. 


WALKS    IN    ROME. 

Fourteenth  Edition.     12mo,  cloth,  $3.50. 


"And  in  connection  with  ttese  explorations  "  (in  Rome  and  OstiaX  "we 
may,  with  propriety,  notice  a  work  recently  published  in  England  and  re- 
published here—'  Walks  in  Rome.'  by  Augustus  J.  C.  Hare,  a  work  which 
is  not  only  exhaustive  in  regard  to  the  geography,  but  the  history,  inci- 
dents, and  legends  of  Eome,  and  is  the  best  and  only  complete  guide  to  all 
its  places  of  interest  and  attraction.  This  is  high  praise,  but  it  is  deserved, 
and  is  corroborated  by  all  who  have  had  occasion  to  use  the  work."— Apple 
ton's  Cyclopedia,  Article  on  Geographical  Explorations  and  Discoveries. 

"The  real  richness  of  Rome  as  well  as  its  interest  are  known  only  to  those 
who  stay  a  long  time  there  ;  but  for  such — or  even  for  those  wliose  visit  is  a 
brief  one — we  know  no  single  work  that  can  replace  this  of  Mr.  Hare.  We 
heartily  recommend  it  to  past  and  future  visitors  to  Rome  ;  they  will  find  it 
a  condensed  library  of  information  about  the  Eternal  City."— Atlantic 
Monthly. 

"The  book  is  to  be  impressively  recommended  to  those  who  are  going  to 
Rome  as  a  cram  ;  to  those  who  are  not  going,  as  an  exquisite  tale  ;  and  to 
those  who  have  beeu  there,  as  a  memorizer." — Lippincott's  Magazine. 

"  1^0  one  who  has  ever  been  to  Rome,  no  one  who  hopes  to  get  there,  no 
intelligent  traveler  now  there,  can  afford  to  be  without  this  valuable  work 
on  the  most  noted  city  in  the  world's  history." — Hall's  Journal  of 
Health. 

"  It  is  the  most  complete  monograph  for  the  traveler  that  has,  we  think, 
ever  been  published.  It  is  a  cyclopedia  on  the  sights  of  Rome  ;  it  is  of 
interest  to  those  who  are  going,  and  to  those  who  have  returned  :  to  the  one 
as  'guide,  philosopher,  and  friend' — and  now  that  it  is  written,  no  sight- 
seer should  go  to  Rome  without  it — to  the  ether  as  memento  :  but  it  is,  fur- 
ther than  this,  so  generally  interesting,  that  few  will  find  it  other  than  de- 
lightful reading."— Evening  Mail. 

"  This  book  supplies  the  peculiar  sort  of  knowledge  which  the  traveler  in 
Rome  evidently  needs.  He  does  not  want  a  mere  guide-book  to  mark  the 
localities,  or  a  more  compendious  history  to  recall  the  most  interesting  asso- 
ciations. He  wants  a  sympathetic  and  Avell-informed  friend  who  has  himself 
been  over  the  places  described,  and  has  appreciated  them  with  the  same 
mingled  sentiments  of  iuquisitiveness,  reverence  and  inexplicable  histori- 
cal longing,  with  which  the  traveler  of  taste  must  approach  a  city  of  such 
vast  and  heterogeneous  attractions  as  Rome."— Westminstek  Review. 


GEORGE    ROUTLEDGE    &    SONS,    NEW    YORK. 


I'll)  Augustus  |.  €.  law. 

WALKS  IN    LONDON. 

\Yith.  one  hundred  illustrations.      Two  volumes  in  one.     12mo, 

cioth,  $3.50. 


"'Walks  in  London'  is  an  exceedingly  charming  book." — New  York 
Herald. 

"  Every  American,  fond  of  walking  and  sight-seeing,  who  intends  to  visit 
London,  should  buy  this  beautiful  book."— New  York  Journal  of  Com- 
merce. 

"Everybody  who  wishes  to  know  any  thing  about  the  great  city, 
everybody  who  wishes  to  refresh  his  memory  regarding  what  he  has  seen 
there,  and  particularly  every  one  who  has  the  prospect,  near  or  remote,  of 
visiting  London,  should  become  possessed  of  this  work.— Scotsman." 

"A  work  of  extreme  attractiveiiess.  Next  to  an  actual  visit  to  the  vast 
metropolis,  this  volume  is  in  every  way  calculated  to  afford  that  pleasure. 
Indeed,  the  careful  reader  of  this  work  will  obtain  a  larger  fund  of  informa- 
tion than  is  usually  acquired  by  European  tourists."— Graphic. 

"  The  man  who  goes  for  the  first  time  to  London  should  take  with  him 
the  new  book  called  '  Walks  in  London,'  by  Augustus  J.  C.  Hare.  It  is,  by 
all  odds,  the  pleasantest  and  most  instructive  hand-book  of  the  great  me- 
tropolis that  has  come  under  our  notice."— Philadelphia  Evening 
Bulletin. 

"We  can  vouch  that  months  o.  residence  in  the  British  metropolis  fail 
to  impart  any  thing  like  the  keen  enjoyment  and  large  knowledge  of  what 
De  Quincey  aptly  called  the  nation  of  London,  as  may  be  got  from  a  perusal 
of  Mr.  Hare's  recent  '  Walks  in  London.'  "—New  York  Sun. 

"It  is,  indeed,  a  most  delightful  reproduction  of  the  London  of  the  past 
which  appears  in  Mr.  Hare's  pages.  He  givps  the  cream  of  whole  libraries 
of  antiquarian  research  in  a  single  walk,  and.  not  only  as  a  guide,  but  also 
as  a  storehouse  of  information  as  to  all  that  is  worth  seeing  and  knowing  of 
the  great  city,  his  book  is  inimitable.  We  know  nothing  to  compare  with 
it." — Buffalo  Courier. 

"  It  would  be  difficult  to  find  in  any  encyclopaedia  an  ampler  or  more 
fully  digested  collection  of  all  the  important  facts  relating  to  the  ancient 
capital  ;  yet  the  work  is  quite  as  entertaining  as  an  ordinary  novel,  and  a 
tithe  of  the  '  good  stories '  which  it  contains  would  set  up  a  professional 
diner-out  for  life.  .  .  .  It  possesses  all  the  merits  of  a  guidebook,  with 
one  additional  merit  which  no  guide-book  ever  possessed  yet— that  of  being 
readable  throuohout." — New  York  Times. 


GEORGE  ROUTLEDGE  &  SONS,  NEW  YORK. 


JEWIN  STREET, 


267 


-where  Jews  had  a  right  to  bury  before  the  reign  of  Her.ry 
II.).  It  was  here  that  Mikon,  who  had  already  been  bUnd 
for  ten  years,  married  his  third  wife,  Ehzabeth,  daughter  of 
Sir  Edward  Minshui,  of  a  Cheshire  family,  in  1664,  the  year 
before  the  Plague. 


"  Shakspeare's  House,"  Aldersgate. 


Here,  in  his  blindness,  he  gave  instruction  by  ear  to 
EUwood  the  Quaker  in  the  foreign  pronunciation  of  Latin, 
which  he  aptly  said  was  the  only  way  in  which  he  could 
benefit  by  Latin  in  conversation  with  foreigners.  It  was 
this  EUwood  who,  when  the  Plague  broke  out  in  1665,  gave 
Miiton  the  cottage-refuge  at  Chahbnt  St.  Giles,  in  which  he 

SPECIMEN  PAGE  FROM  "WALKS  IN  LONDON." 


5o6 


SICIL  v. 


William  II.  with  monks  from  La  Cava,  is  a  fine  picture  of 
S.  Benedict,  surrounded  by  the  heads  of  the  religious  orders 
under  his  rule,  by  Pietro  Novelli. 

A  winding  path  (donkeys  3  frs.)  leads  from  Monreale  to 
the  desolate  unfinished  Benedictine  Convent  of  S.  Martijio 
delle  Scale,  founded  amid  barren  mountains  by  Gregory  the 
Great  in  581,  but  with  no  buildings  older  than  the  last 
century.      Its  decorations  are  very  rich,  but  of  little  interest. 


Cloisters,  Monreale. 


The  Library  contains  some  literary  treasures,  especially  the 
correspondence  of  the  Beato  Giuliano  Majoli  with  King 
Alfonso  and  the  Viceroy  of  Naples  in  the  fifteenth  century, 
which  throws  much  light  on  contemporary  Sicilian  history. 
In  the  refectory  are  two  fine  frescoes  of  Novello — "  II  Mon- 
realese,"  Daniel  in  the  Den  of  Lions,  and  the  Prophet  carried 
by  the  Angel  into  the  Wilderness.  From  the  ascent  to  the 
convent  we  see  the  Castle  of  S.  Benedetto,  which,  from  a 
Saracenic  fortress,  was  turned  into  a  convent  by  William  11. 
The  return  from  S.  Martino  may  be  varied  by  passing  through. 

SPECIMEN  PAGE  FROM  "CITIESOF  SOUTHERN  ITALY  AND  SICILY." 


•Mr.  Hare  is  the  ideal  tourist." — Journal  of  Covimerce^  New  York^ 


Books  of  Travel. 

Uniform  iu  style,  12ino,  bound  in  cloth. 


WALKS    IN    PARIS.       illustrated.     One  volume.     $3.00. 
DAYS    NEAR    PARIS.       illustrated.     One  volume.     $2.50. 
WALKS    IN    LONDON.       illustrated.     Two  volumes  in  one.     $3.50. 
WALKS    IN    ROME.       Wuh  Map      One  volume.     $3.50. 
STUDIES   IN    RUSSIA.       illustrated.     One  volume.     $2.00. 
WANDERINGS    IN    SPAIN.      illustrated.     One  volume,     ifi.25- 

CITIES  OF  SOUTHERN  ITALY  AND  SICILY.    with.iius- 

trations.     One  volume.     $2.50. 
FLORENCE.       with  map  and  illustrations.     One  volume.     $1.00. 
VENICE.       With  map  and  illustrations.     One  volume.     $1.00. 

SKETCHES  IN  HOLLAND  AND  SCANDINAVIA,    with 

illustrations.     One  volume.     $1.00. 


MEMORIALS    OF    A    QUIET     LIFE.      with   portn-^its  on    steel. 
Two  volumes  in  one.     $3.00. 

LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  BARONESS  BUNSEN.    with 

portraits  on  steel.     Two  volumes  in  one.     $3.00. 


-GEORGE  rOUTLEDGE  &  SONS.  0  Lafayette  Place,  IC.  Y. 


WALKS    IN     PARIS. 

With  50  illustrations.     i2mo,  cloth,  $3.00. 

DAYS    NEAR   PARIS. 

With  42  illustrations.     ]2mo,  cloth,  $2.50. 

7ke  liutnerous  citations fr-om  Fre7!ch  authorities  illustrative  of  the  historical  asso^ 

ciatloiis  of  the  various  buildings,  streets  aftd  localities  in  Paris  and  its 

vicitnty  have  in  these  editions  been  translated  into  English,  thus 

greatly  facilitating  their  use  hy  American  readers. 


"  One  ['  Walks  in  Paris']  of  the  most  delightful  and  most  attractive  of  books  in  its 
kind,  chatty,  instructive,  brimming  over  with  anecdote,  historical  and  otherwise,  and 
providing  an  account  of  the  French  capital  equally  vivid  and  entertaining." — Satur* 
DAY  Evening  Gazette,  Boston. 

"  Mr.  Hare's  books  upon  London,  RomC;  Florence,  and  Venice  have  given  him  an- 
enviable  reputation  among  travellers.  Ot  guide-books  there  are  many,  but  Mr.  Hare 
adds  to  the  ordinary  information  to  be  found  in  such  works,  the  knowledge  of  a 
scholar  of  liberal  culture  and  the  taste  of  a  man  of  refinement,  qualities  which  give  his 
books  a  distinctive  literary  character.  His  last  two  volumes  treat  of  Paris  and  its 
suburbs,  both  having  the  same  value  that  their  predecessors  have,  and  both  being 
planned  upon  similar  lines." — Book  Buyer. 

"  The  opinions  and  comments  of  others  with  which  he  has  interspersed  his  descrip- 
tions are  chosen  with  good  taste  and  judgment,  and  the  illustrations,  from  the  author's 
own  sketches,  engraved  on  wood  by  T.  Sulman,  are  a  rare  treat  when  the  common 
run  of  even  steel  cuts  of  the  rich  and  rare  architecture  of  Paris  is  borne  in  mind. 
.  .  .  .  The  book  is  written  in  an  elegant  and  pleasing  style  and  abounds  not  only 
in  things  which  will  be  new  to  most  people  who  think  they  have  seen  Paris  and  in 
kindly  reflections  thereon  but  in  incident,  allusion  and  anecdote  as  pertinent  as  inter- 
esting."— Brooklyn  Eagle. 

"Mr.  Augustus  J.  C.  Hare  has  walked  about  London  and  Rome  and  other  places 
to  the  great  profit  and  advantage  of  travellers,  and  his  '  Walks  in  Paris '  (Roudedge) 
are  of  the  kind  that  will  be  welcomed  by  tourists  and  sojourners  in  a  foreign  land. 
His  method  is  perfectly  well  known  and  stands  approved  by  the  great  success  that  has 
attended  his  books.  .  .  .  The  aim  is  to  furnish  a  guide  book  of  a  quality  superior 
to  the  mere  lists  of  sights  that  hurried  travellers  must  put  up  with — a  guide  book  that 
is  worth  study  itself  and  induces  further  reading  and  study.  ...  Mr.  Hare's 
books  are  read  to  most  advantage  in  the  presence  of  the  object  described,  or  as  an 
immediate  preparation  foi  a  visit  to  the  places  enumerated.  His  taste  and  judgment 
are  as  trustworthy  as  his  skill  is  unusual.  Under  his  leadership  the  least  observant 
traveller  will  have  his  eyes  open  to  beauties  and  charms  that  he  would  otherwise  pass 
unheeded  by." — N.  Y.  Commercial  Advertiser, 

"  Good  Americans  see  Paris  and  Hve,  but  to  those  who  can  not  see  Paris  an  admira- 
ble substitute  is  offered  in  this  book  by  the  accomphshed  traveller  and  writer,  Augus- 
tus J.  C.  Hare,  entitled  '  Walks  in  Paris.'  .  .  .  Mainly  the  book  takes  us  through 
art  galleries  and  old  palaces;  through  historic  quarters  where  old  scenes  Hve  again  in 
Mr.  Hare's  vivid  narrations  and  admirable  citations  from  history,  poetry,  or  criticism. 
The  enchantment  of  Paris  is  in  its  pages." — Boston  Traveller. 

"It  can  be  safely  said  that  in  these  two  volumes  the  traveller  will  find  more  informa- 
tion about  Paris  than  in  whole  libraries  of  reference." — Publishing  World. 

"  Indispensable  to  the  traveller  in  Paris." — New  York  Tribune. 

GEORGE  ROUTLEDGE  &  SONS.  NEW  YORK. 


TUILERIES   GARDENS  25 

The  portion  of  the  gardens  nearest  the  Champs  Ely- 
s6es  is  Ictid  out  in  groves  of  chestnut  trees.  There  is  a 
tradition  that  one  of  these  trees  heralds  spring  by  flower- 
ing OR  March  22,  on  which  day  orthodox  Parisians  go  to 
look  for  the  phenomenon. 

On  either  side  of  the  gardens  are  raised  terraces.  That 
on  the  south  above  the  Seine  formerly  ended  in  the  hand- 
some Porte  de  ia  Conference  (on  the  v/alls  of  Charles 
IX.).  which  was  destroyed  ni   1730.     It  derived  its  name 


#«; 


fe-.-^W,i      rt- 


£■■5,  „.«{-/:»%< 


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THE    GARDENS    OF   THE    TUILERIES. 


from  the  Spanish  ambassadors  having  entered  there  to 
confer  with  Mazarin  about  the  marriage  of  IMaria  Theresa 
with  Louis  XIV.  The  north  terrace,  above  the  Rue  de 
Rivoli,  is  still  one  of  the  most  popular  promenades  in 
Paris.  Its  western  end,  being  the  warmest  and  sunniest 
part  of  the  garden,  has  obtained  the  name  of  Za  Petits 
Provence  Here  it  was  that  Louis  XV.  first  saw  ]\Ille  de 
Romans,  brought  hither  as  a  beautiful  little  girl  to  see 
the  show  of  the  king's  entr>^,  sent  to  inquire  at  the  lemon- 
ade  stall  (existing  then  as  now)  who  she  was,  and  then 

SPECIMEN  PAGE  FROM  "WALKS  IN  PARIS." 


264 


DA  YS  NEAR  PARIS 


closed  in  the  immense  gardens,  partly  planted  by  Lenotre,  and 
then  regarded  as  the  most  beautiful  in  Europe.  The  fountains 
of  Vaux,  which  since  have  seemed  less  than  mediocre  after  those 
of  Versailles,  Marly,  and  St.  Cloud,  were  prodigies  ;  but  yet 
beautiful  as  was  the  house,  the  expenditure  of  eighteen  millions, 
ihe  vouchers  for  which  still  exist,  proves  that  he  was  served  with 
as  little  economy  as  he  served  the  king  with.  It  is  true  that  Saint 
Germain  and  Fontainebleau,  the  only  houses  of  pleasure  occupied 
by  the  king,  were  far  from  approaching  the  beauty  of  Vaux  ; 
Louis  XIV.  felt  it  and  was  annoyed.  In  every  part  of  the  house 
the   arms  and  device  of  Fouquct  are  displayed  ;  a  squirrel  with 


CHATEAIT   DE   VAUX-PRASLIN. 


the  motto.  Quo  non  asceiidam?  'Whither  can  I  not  climb?'  The 
king  asked  for  an  explanation  :  the  ambitious  tone  of  the  device 
did  not  serve  to  appease  the  monarch.  The  courtiers  remarked 
that  the  squirrel  was  everywhere  depicted  as  pursued  by  a  snake, 
which  is  in  the  arms  of  Colbert.  The  fete  was  superior  to  those 
that  Cardinal  Mazarin  had  given,  not  only  in  splendor,  but  in 
taste,  the  Le  Fdcheux  of  Moliere  was  represented  there  for  the 
first  lime :  Psiisson  wrote  the  prologue,  which  was  admired. 
Public  amusements  conceal  or  prepare  so  often  at  court  private 
disasters  that,  without  the  queen  mother,  the  Superintendent  and 
Pelisson  would  have  been  arrested  at  Vaux  on  the  day  of  the 
f§te." — Voltaire ,  "  Siecle  de  Louis  XI F," 

SPECIMEN  PAGE  FROM  "DAYS  NEAR  PARIS." 


|)}}  Augustus  k  it.  i)arc. 

LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  FRANCES, 

BARONESS    BUNSEN. 

AVith  two  steel  portraits.     Two  volumes  in  one.     12mo.  cloth, 

$3.00. 


"Thase  volumes  are  worthy  of  a  place  beside  the  '  Memorials  of  a  Quiet  Life.'  " — 
Church.man. 

"  I  thank  you  with  all  my  heart  for  the  pleasure  you  have  given  to  all  of  us  by  send- 
ing to  us  the  '  Life  of  Madame  Bunsen.'  It  is  a  wonderful  book  in  many  ways — the 
life  of  a  wonderful  woman.  So  much  of  the  stor>'  is  told  by  herself,  too,  that  we  are 
sure  that  we  see  her  as  she  was  and  is." — Edward  Everett  Hale,  in  the  Chris- 
tian Register. 

"We  have  been  favored  with  many  delightful  biographies  of  late  years,  but  there  is 
none  which  has  the  pure  charm  of  this.  .  .  .  The  reviewer  who  should  say  all  he 
thought  of  this  lovely  girl  and  saintly  woman  would  be  accused  of  e.xtravagance,  but 
he  may  safely  leave  the  vindication  of  his  enthusiasm  to  the  book  itself,  which  will 
transport  him  into  a  refined  atmosphere,  and  into  company  which  goes  far  to  redeem 
this  world  of  all  its  reproaches." — Charles  Dudley  Warner,  in  the  Hartford 
Courant. 


|iu  ^ugu.stus  ii.  (L\  flare. 

STUDIES   IN   RUSSIA. 

^Yith  illustrations.     12mo,  cloth,  $2.00. 


"  A  most  interesting  volume,  which  will  prove  most  welcome  to  those  curious  to 
know  something  of  this  vast  empire,  and  useful  to  those  who  are  likely  to  travel 
there." — Journal  of  Education. 

"The  volume  can  be  cordially  recommended  for  its  entertaining  character,  its  bril- 
liant style,  and  for  the  vast  amount  of  valuable  information  that  it  contains." — Satur- 
day Evening  Gazette,  Boston. 

"In  Mr.  Augustus  J.  C.  Hare's  book,  'Studies  in  Russia,"  we  have  a  work  of  per- 
manent value,  which  has  not  been  hurriedly  put  forth  to  catch  the  possible  advantage 
of  any  war  agitation.  There  are  few  countries  where  Englishmen  travel  less  than  in 
Russia,  and  books  such  as  this  are  not  common.  The  illustrations  are  admirable."— 
Book  Buyer. 

"The  book  is  certainly  a  ver>-  timely  one,  and  is  the  best  of  the  sort  which  has  yet 
been  written  in  English." — Chicago  Dial. 

GEORGE  ROUTLEDGE  &  SONS,  NEW  YORK. 


|U)  ^upstus  il.  (C.  Wdx(. 


WANDERINGS  IN  SPAIN. 

"With  illustrations.      12ino,  elotli,  $1.25. 


"  Mr.  Augustus  J.  C.  Hare,  whose  'Walks  in  Rome'  is  a  mcst  delightful  itinerary 
which  one  finds  in  the  hands  of  every  visitor  to  the  Eternal  City,  writes  in  '  Wander- 
ings in  Spain'  a  no  less  charming  account  of  travels  in  that  seldom  visited  country. 
Mr.  Hare  is  no  ordinary  traveler,  who  tricks  out  his  page  with  cheap  incident  and 
clap-trap  description ;  his  book  is  alike  charming  to  the  ordinary  reader,  and  worth 
the  attention  of  the  earnest  student  of  the  new  Republic,  its  people,  its  customs,  its 
cities,  and  its  art." — N    Y.  Evening  Mail. 

"It  is  rarely  that  we  have  met  a  more  delightful  book  of  travels,  or  one  more  in- 
structive.    The  literary  style  is  unusually  excellent,  and  the  descriptions  graphic,  and 

n:arked  by  a  thorough  appreciation  of  Spanish  life  and  character The 

illustrations  interspersed  in  this  volume  are  of  such  unusual  excellence  as  to  deserve 
especial  mention.  Such  pictures  really  help  out  the  letter-press,  which  is  more  than 
can  be  said  of  nine  out  of  ten  of  the  woodcuts  with  which  modern  books  are  so  pro- 
fusely illustrated." — Springfield  Republican. 

"  It  is  worth  a  score  of  ordinary  books  of  travel.  He  gives  us  not  onlj^  facts,  but 
the  impression  of  facts.  As  depicted  by  him,  Spain  becomes  a  living  realit>'.  We 
seem  to  see  its  mountains,  plains,  and  valleys ;  to  breathe  its  air,  to  walk  its  streets, 
to  behold  its  majestic  architectural  monuments.  We  are  brought  in  contact  with  its 
people;  we  visit  *hem  in  their  homes,  we  josde  them  in  the  streets,  we  hear  their 
voices.  We  know  of  no  picture  of  Spain  so  vivid,  yet  so  truthful,  and  can  heartily 
commend  the  volume  as  one  of  the  rare  works  of  the  day." — California  Press. 

"We  recollect  no  book  that  so  vividly  recalls  the  country  to  those  who  have  visited 
it,  and  we  should  recommend  intending  tourists  to  carrj-  it  with  them  as  a  companiort 
of  travel." — London  Times. 

"  Mr.  Hare's  book  is  admirable.  We  are  sure  no  one  will  regret  making  it  the 
companion  of  a  Spanish  journey.  It  will  bear  reading  repeatedly  when  one  is  moving 
among  the  scenes  it  describes — no  small  advantage  when  the  traveling  library  is 
scanty." — Saturday  Review. 


GEORGE  ROUTLEDGE  &  SONS,  NEW  YORK. 


!''  till  ^ 


§iT  Augustus  1.  C  Ijart. 

MEMORIALS  OF  A  QUIET  LIFE. 

With  two  steel  portraits.      Two  volumes  in  one.     12mo,  cloth 

$3.00. 


"  If  it  is  a  splendid  service  to  men  to  make  the  way  of  duty  look  to  them 
as  the  way  of  joy,  to  clothe  the  common  drudgeries  of  obedience  in  garments 
of  beauty,  to  render  househohl  routine  sacred,  and  self-sacrifice  attractive, 
lihen  no  ordinary  honor  belongs  to  these  'Memorials  of  a  Quiet  Life. '" — 
Bishop  Huntin'gton. 

"We  are  far  from  using  the  language  of  mere  conventional  eulogy  when 
we  say  that  this  is  a  book  wliich  will  cause  every  riglit-minded  reader  to  feel 
not  only  the  happier,  but  the  better." — Conservative. 

"The  name  of  Hare  is  one  deservedly  to  be  honored;  and  in  these 
'  Memorials,'  whicli  are  as  true  and  satisfactory  a  biography  as  it  is  possible 
to  wiite,  the  author  places  his  readers  in  the  heart  of  the  family,  and 
allows  them  to  see  the  hidden  sources  of  life  and  love  by  which  it  was 
nourished  and  sustained. "— Athe.njeum. 

"One  of  those  books  which  it  is  impossible  to  read  without  pleasure.  It 
conveys  a  sense  of  repose  not  unlike  that  which  everybody  must  have  felt 
out  of  service-time  in  quiet  little  village  churches.  Its  editor  will  receive 
the  hearty  t'.ianks  of  every  cultivated  reader  for  these  profoundly  interest- 
ing 'Memorials'  of  two  brothers,  whose  names  and  labors  their  universities 
and  church  have  alike  reason  to  cherish  with  affection  and  remember  with 
pride,  who  have  smoothed  the  path  of  faith  to  so  many  troubled  wayfarers, 
strengthening  the  weary  and  confirming  the  weak." — Standard. 

"The  book  is  rich  in  insight  and  in  contrast  of  character.  It  is  varied 
and  full  of  episodes  wliich  few  can  fail  to  read  with  interest ;  and,  as  ex- 
bibiting  the  sentiments  and  thoughts  of  a  very  influential  circle  of  minds 
during  a  quarter  of  a  century,  it  may  be  said  to  have  a  distinct  historical 
value. "— XoxcoNFOiiiiisT. 

"A  charming  b)ok,  simply  and  gracefully  lecording  the  events  of  a 
simple  and  gracious  life.  Its  connection  with  the  beginning  of  a  great 
rjovement  in  the  English  Church  will  make  it  to  the  thoixghtful  reader 
more  profoundly  suggestive  than  many  biographies  crowded  and  bustling 
vrith  incident.  It  is  almost  the  first  of  a  class  of  books  the  Christian  world 
just  now  greatly  needs,  showing  how  the  spiritiial  life  was  maintained  amid 
the  shaking  of  religiou.s  '  opinions  ' ;  how  the  life  of  the  soul  deepened  as  the 
thoughts  of  the  mind  broadened;  and  how,  in  tlieir  union,  the  two  formed 
a  volume  of  larger  and  more  thoroughly  vitalized  Christian  idea  than  the 
English  people  had  witnessed  for  many  days." — Glasgow  Herald. 


GEORGE  ROUTLEDGE  &  SONS,  NEW  YORK. 


CITIES     OF     SOUTHERN 
ITALY  AND  SICILY. 

With  illustrations.     ]2mo,  cloth,  $2.50. 


"  Mr.  Hare's  name  will  be  a  sufficient  passport  for  the  popularity  of  his  new  work. 
His  books  on  the  Cities  of  Italy  are  fast  becoming  as  indispensable  to  the  traveler  ia 
that  part  of  the  country  as  the  guide-books  of  Murray  or  of  Baedeker.  .  .  His 
book  is  one  which  we  should  advise  all  future  travelers  in  Southern  Italy  and  Sicily  to 
find  room  for  in  their  portmanteaus." — Ac.-\de.my. 

"We  regard  the  volume  as  a  necessary  part  of  the  equipment  of  a  traveler  in  South- 
ern Italy;  if  he  goes  without  it  he  will  miss  the  most  thorough  and  most  helpful  book 
that  has  treated  it.  The  part  devoted  to  Sicily  is  especially  full  of  interest ;  and  we 
should  not  omit  to  make  mention  of  the  exquisite  little  woodcuts  done  from  Mr.  Hare's 
water-colors  executed  on  the  spot." — British  Qiarterly  Review. 

"Of  all  the  volumes  published  for  the  instruction  and  delight  of  travelers,  those  of 
Augustus  J.  C.  Hare  are  the  best  on  many  accounts.  They  are  not  mere  directories 
or  catalogues.  They  are  full  of  human  life  and  interest.  Mr.  Hare  is  the  ideal  tour- 
ist, who  is  interested  in  art,  architecture,  literature,  natural  history  and  all  the  scien- 
ces, to  the  extent  of  not  beif.g  wearisome,  but  of  gilding  whatever  he  touches  with  the 
light  of  his  own  knowledge  and  enthusiasm.  .  .  .  Wherever  he  has  gone  with 
note-book  in  hand,  he  has  not  failed  to  jot  down  those  objects  which  repay  the  trouble 
of  inspection,  and  to  tell  about  them  all  that  is  worth  knowing.  His  '  Studies  in 
Russia,' his  '  Wanderings  in  Spain,'  his  '  Sketches  in  Holland  and  Scandinavia,' and 
his  '  Cities  of  Southern  Italy  and  Sicily,'  show  him  as  much  at  home  in  those  widely 
separated  countries  as  in  his  own  London." — New  York  Journal  of  Comm^rcc. 


|W  giuciustus  |.  €.  *);u-c. 

SKETCHES  IN  HOLLAND 
AND  SCANDINAVIA. 

With  33  illustrations.     12mo,  cloth,  $1.00. 


"  This  little  work  is  the  best  companion  a  visitor  to  these  countries  can  have,  while 
those  who  stay  at  home  can  also  read  it  with  pleasure  and  profit." — Glasgow  Her- 
ald. 

"Will  be  popular  for  its  handy  size  and  light  manner  Without  being  strikingly 
amusing,  it  is  yet  never  wearisome.  .  .  .  His  notes  of  travel  in  Norway  are  very 
tempting  to  tourists  attracted  to  the  north." — London  Art  Journal. 

'  These  sketches  are  made  agreeable  by- the  same  observation  and  love  for  history 
which  is  found  in  'Walks  in  London'  and  '  Walks  in  Rome.'" — Springfield  Re- 
publican. 

GEORGE  ROUTLEDGE  &  SONS,  NEW  YORK. 


72 


IN  DENMARK. 


Jones  for  Christian  IV.,  and  containing  the  room  where 
the  king  died,  with  his  wedding  dress,  and  most  of  his 
other  clothes  and  possessions.  This  palace-building 
monarch,  celebrated  for  the  drinking  bouts  in  which 


*\ 


f'i M        -     -  *^ 


#%*.  ^»«^     ''^"  '    '  '    :~'^^^^^ 


THE     ROSENBORG     PALACE,     COPENHAGEN, 


lie  indulged  with  his  brother-in-law,  James  I.  of 
England,  was  the  greatest  dandy  of  his  time,  and 
before  we  leave  Denmark  we  shall  become  \'ery 
familiar  with   his   portraits,  always   distinguished   by 


SPECIMEN  PAGE  FROM    "SKETCHES   IxV  HOLLAND   AND  SCANDI- 
NAVIA '• 


F  LO  R  K  N  C  K  .     One  volume. 

VENICE. 


One  volume. 


With  maps  aud  illustrations.     12mo,  cloth;  each.  $1.00. 


"Florence  "and  "Venice,"  by  Aui^u-tu-  J.  C  II;ire,  from  the  aesthetic  point 
of  view,  are  modii?.  The  contents  are  divided  in  the  usual  way  accordiiii^  to 
localities  or  ••  excursions,"  and  include  all  ol  note  that  a  man  of  taste  would 
need  to  know  in  re.rardtothe  historic  and  artistic  treasures  <if  these  cities. 
The  volumes  are  illustrated  and  are  furnished  with  maps  and  inaexes.''— 
The  Nation. 

"Those  who  have  found  in  Mr.  Hare's  "  Walks  in  Rome"  and  his  otiier 
■manuals  so  refreshini,'  a  relief  from  the  monotonous  matter-ol-fact  of  the  guide- 
book, will  welcome  the  two  attractive  volumes  on  Venice  and  Florence,  whicli 
have  just  been  added  to  the  author's  topographical  series.  Mr.  Hare  takes  his 
reader  through  the  streets,  palaces,  galleries,  wherever,  in  fact,  there  is  any- 
thing to  reveal  what,  has  made  these  cities  great,  and  what  still  renders  them  the 
most  attractive  spots  in  Europe."' — Boston  Advertiser.  ^ 

"  Charming  is  the  word  to  be  used  in  chnracterizin;^  these  books.  The  plan 
is  in  general  tiiat  of  the  earlier  "  Walks  in  Rome,"  and  the  cities  are  described 
in  a  series  of  excursions  whose  details  not  only  give  a  va^t  deal  of  information 
as  to  things  and  places,  but  are  enriched  by  a  store  of  hift(  rical,  literary,  critical 
.and  anecdotal  knowledge.  Each  of  the  volumes  is  furnished  with  a  map  com- 
prehensive enough  for  the  uses  of  the  traveler.''— Ispringfield  Republican. 

"Those  who  have  read  "Walks  in  London '' will  need  no  commendation  to 
Venice— Florence.  It  is  a  rare  delight  to  read  a  book  written  by  a  man  of  broad 
and  ripe  culture.  Mr.  Hare's  "Walks  about  London  "  has  long  had  thedtserved 
reputation  of  being  incomparably  the  best  guide  to  that  world's  metmpolis  ; 
his  guide-books  to  Italy,  though  less  known  on  this  side  of  the  water,  are  hardly 
inferior  :  and  these  two  volumes  are  worthy  companions  to  their  predecessors." 
—Christian  Union. 

"These  two  books,  by  a  competent  author,  well  printed,  and  with  a 
good  index,  should  be  popular  among -U  who  desire  to  visit  intelligently  the 
two  cities  whose  names  they  hear.  They  are  compact  and  brief,  but  they  omit 
nothing  which  the  traveler  needs  to  see,  and  they  give  an  intelligent  criticism 
upon  many  of  the  chief  objects  of  antiquity  and  art  th;it  come  under  his  obser- 
vation. There  are  colored  plans  of  the  two  cities,  and  occasional  illustrations. 
The  author's  "Walks  in  Rome"  and  "Days  near  Rome  "had  proven  his 
quMlifications  to  treat  of  the  Queen  of  the  Adriatic  and  the  City  of  the  Arno." 
—Churchman. 

"Mr.  Hare  has  entered  into  the  themes  of  these  volumes,  Venice  and 
Florence,  with  the  enthusiasm  which  they  sues'est,  and  with  an  uncommon 
degree  of  knowledge.  The  leadinEr  of  these  books  is  a  pleasure,  for  if  they  were 
undertaken  as  a  task  the  writing  of  them  must  have  soon  becrme  a  delight  to 
Mr.  Hare.  Ttiere  i->  a  world  of  charming  reading  in  them,  drawn  from  the  pages 
of  those  who  have  written  about  these  romantic  old  cities— poets,  travelers,  his- 
torian.*, critics— and  the  next  best  thing  to  being  in  their  noble  halls  f.nd 
palaces,  hallowed  with  the  memory  of  a  thousand  years,  is  to  be  there  m  spirit, 
as  one  cannot  hut  be  with  such  an  arcomplished  gentleman  and  learned  scholar 
as  Mr.  Hare  for  his  guide.''— N.  Y.  Mail  and  Express. 


GEORGE  ROUTLEDGK  &  SONS.  NEW  YORK. 


THE  KREMLIN  OF  MO  SCO  W. 


^75 


are  represented  as  rising  from  crescents.  The  Tartars, 
who  were  masters  of  Russia  for  two  hundred  years,  had 
changed  the  churches  into  mosques  and  fixed  the  crescent 
upon  them.  When  the  Grand  Duke  Ivan  Vassiiivitch 
drove  out  the  Tartars,  and  restored  the  churches,  he  left 
the  crescents,  but  planted  the  cross  upon  them  in  sign  of 
victory,  and  Russia  has  since  continued  the  practice. 

The  second  cross-bar  which  is  almost  universally  seen 
placed  crooked  on  the  lower  part  of  the  cross  \z  because 
the  Russians  believe  our  Saviour  to  have  been  deformed 


VIEW    FK0:M    the    K'KEMLIX. 


- — to  have  had  one  leg  shorter  than  the  other.  He 
wished  to  drink  to  the  utmost  the  degradation  of 
humanity.  "  He  hath  no  form  or  comeliness.  .  .  .  We 
did  esteem  him  stricken,  smitten  of  God  and  afflicted.  .  . 
It  pleased  the  Lord  to  bruise  him  :  he  hath  put  him  to 
grief." 

Paying  due  respect  to  the  icons,  strangers  may  wander 
about  these  sacred  courts  at  their  will,  but  endless  diffi- 
culties attend  them  if  they  want  to  draw.  Populace  and 
officials  are  alike  suspicious  of  such  a  strange  proceeding, 

SPECIMEN  PAGE  FROM  '-'STUDIES  IN  RUSSIA." 


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